Saudi East-West Pipeline Restart Sparks Oil Market Decline

Saudi Arabia has restarted operations at its East-West Pipeline, which was shut down due to drone attacks on September 13. The pipeline disruption had halted crude loadings at the kingdom's Yanbu port, forcing Saudi Arabia to reroute around four million barrels per day - about 4% of global supply - through the pipeline.

The resumption of supplies has driven selling on global oil markets, with Brent crude futures falling by more than $2 a barrel to its lowest since September 8. State oil firm Saudi Aramco did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to sources, Aramco is seeking to get the pumping rate back to four million bpd, while a security source said full resumption could take weeks.