Saudi Arabia Restarts East-West Pipeline Amid Oil Export Rerouting

Saudi Arabia has completed repairs to its East-West pipeline and is set to resume crude loadings at its Red Sea port of Yanbu, according to Quantum Commodity Intelligence. The restart comes after a recent report that repairs could take three-to-five weeks, but Bloomberg reported Thursday that the pipeline would return to about half its capacity in the next few days.

The East-West pipeline is crucial for Saudi Arabia's crude exports, and the country has been taking steps to reroute shipments due to ongoing maintenance. Ship-to-ship transfers in the Gulf of Oman are nearing capacity limits, threatening tanker availability.