Saudi Arabia resumes Yanbu oil loading after pipeline restart

Saudi Arabia has restarted oil loading operations at its Red Sea port of Yanbu following a drone attack that shut down the East-West Pipeline on September 11. The resumption of operations, which allows Aramco, Saudi Arabia's state oil giant, to export crude from Yanbu, eases concerns over oil exports from the Middle East amidst the US war with Iran.

The pipeline, which had been halted since the drone attack, was restarted last week, enabling the loading of crude oil at Yanbu and Al Muajjiz terminals. Tanker tracking firm TankerTrackers.com observed nearly 10 million barrels of crude oil being loaded at Yanbu and Al Muajjiz on September 27, while trade sources estimate daily loadings from Yanbu at about 2 million barrels.

Pipeline throughput, which stands at around 2 million barrels per day, is far below the pipeline's 7 million bpd capacity. A full recovery to pre-attack levels of approximately 5.5 million bpd may take another month. Crude inventories at Yanbu rose by roughly 1 million barrels on September 22, marking the first build since the attack.