Saudi Oil Exports Disrupted as East-West Pipeline Suffers Critical Damage

Saudi Arabia's East-West Pipeline has been severely damaged in an attack, and repairs are expected to take three to five weeks. The pipeline is a critical route for moving crude oil to the Red Sea for export, and its outage will have significant implications for global oil supplies.

The attack on the pipeline was blamed by Saudi Arabia on drones launched by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq. The pipeline has been carrying an average of 2.6 million to 4 million barrels a day since late August, according to Norway-based research firm Rystad Energy.

Rystad Energy warned that a month-long shutdown of the pipeline would be a 'large disruption' that would make crude deliveries slower and more expensive. The market could initially manage it, but a longer closure would require a major reallocation of global crude flows.