Saudi Arabia's East-West Pipeline Restart Drives Oil Market Volatility
Saudi Arabia has restarted operations at its East-West pipeline, which was shut down earlier this month due to drone attacks. The resumption of supplies is expected to drive selling on global oil markets, with Brent crude futures falling by more than $2 a barrel to their lowest since September 8.
The pipeline was used to reroute around 4 million barrels per day, approximately 4% of global supply, to the Red Sea port of Yanbu. State oil firm Saudi Aramco was seeking to increase the pumping rate to 4 million barrels per day, but it is unclear when this will be achieved.
The pipeline's restart will also enable crude supplies to reach Aramco refineries located on the Red Sea coast. One cargo is scheduled to load at Yanbu later Tuesday, bound for China.