Saudi Arabia Reroutes Oil Exports Amid Houthi Strikes

Saudi Arabia's crude oil exports have been rerouted following recent drone strikes launched by Yemen's Houthi movement, which targeted the kingdom's East-West pipeline and Aramco facilities at Yanbu. The attacks took out 4-5 million barrels a day of capacity from the pipeline, causing total Saudi crude loadings to fall by over 70% from January and February levels.

The East-West pipeline, also known as Petroline, normally carries up to 7 million barrels a day across 1,200 kilometers from Eastern Province fields to the Yanbu terminal on the Red Sea. However, since the September 11 strike, Saudi Arabia has been moving crude through the Strait of Hormuz at a rate of 2.9 million barrels a day over the past six days.

Saudi authorities confirmed that the Houthi strikes targeted civilian infrastructure at the port where the East-West pipeline terminates. The attacks also put Yanbu, the kingdom's primary outlet since the Hormuz freeze, under renewed threat. Meanwhile, Aramco is using an alternative routing to move about 60 million barrels loaded at Ras Tanura for September and October delivery, mainly to Chinese and South Korean refiners.