Saudi Arabia resumes Yanbu oil loading after pipeline restart

Saudi Arabia has resumed loading oil tankers from its Red Sea port of Yanbu following the restart of the East-West Pipeline, according to trade sources and shipping data. The resumption of Yanbu loadings, which had been halted earlier this month after a drone attack, has improved the outlook for oil exports from the Middle East.

The announcement from Saudi Aramco, the state oil giant, has led to a slight decline in global oil prices as it indicates increased oil flows from the region, which has been affected by the US war with Iran.

The resumption of operations began on September 12, just a day after the pipeline was restarted. Since then, Aramco has been notifying customers of its October loading schedule from Yanbu, and already loaded a cargo from the port last week. Drone attacks, attributed to the Houthis, had forced the kingdom to shut the pipeline on September 11, halting crude exports from Yanbu. However, pipeline operations were resumed on September 13.

Aramco has not yet responded to a request for comment on the matter. Satellite imagery from the European Space Agency captured on September 27 showed nearly 10 million barrels of crude oil being loaded at Yanbu and Al Muajjiz, a terminal south of Yanbu. Tanker tracker firm TankerTrackers.com identified 40 tankers loading oil at these terminals, regardless of their activity or proximity to the terminals.

Two trade sources estimated crude loadings from Yanbu at around two million barrels per day for the past week. The pipeline's throughput is approximately 2 million barrels per day, while Kpler, a ship-tracking firm, estimates it to be around 2.65 million barrels per day.

This rate, however, is far from the pipeline's maximum capacity of 7 million barrels per day. Kpler predicts that throughput will increase to between 3 million and 4 million barrels per day in the coming days. A full return to the pre-attack rate of roughly 5.5 million barrels per day could take another month, according to a note from Kpler on Monday.