Saudi Pipeline Outage Puts Global Oil Supply at Risk

Saudi Arabia is facing a critical situation as its major east-west pipeline remains offline following drone attacks. The pipeline, which reroutes around 4 million barrels per day to the port of Yanbu on the Red Sea, has been shut since Friday (September 11, 2026). With stocks at Yanbu already low, the country may run out of oil for exports within days, leading to a loss of up to 4% of global supply.

The pipeline outage is exacerbating an already severe global supply crunch. The International Energy Agency reported that world oil supply will decline by 5.7 million bpd this year, or about 6%. Saudi Arabia's own oil production has dropped to just 6.2 million bpd in August from 10.9 million bpd in February before the start of the war.

Industry sources estimate that it may take five to six weeks to repair the pipeline, but another source suggests it could be fixed sooner and resume pumping partially while repairs are ongoing. Without the east-west pipeline resuming operations, Saudi oil supply will continue to decline, worsening the global supply crunch.