Saudi Pipeline Outage Threatens Up to 4% of Global Oil Supply

Saudi Arabia's major pipeline to the Red Sea is out of commission due to drone attacks, threatening up to 4% of global oil supply. The pipeline, which reroutes around 4 million barrels per day, has been shut since Friday.

The outage could take as long as five to six weeks to repair, according to one source, while another estimates it could be fixed sooner and resume pumping partially during repairs. Saudi Arabia's government media office and energy ministry did not comment on the extent of the damage or when operations will resume.

Without the pipeline, stocks at the port of Yanbu are expected to run out in five to seven days, according to industry sources. The world's biggest exporter has been relying on the pipeline to supply customers with oil since the Strait of Hormuz was shut down due to war. This year, global oil supply is expected to decline by 5.7 million bpd, or about 6%, as flows through the Strait of Hormuz have slowed to just 6-9 million bpd.