Saudi Arabia Resumes East-West Pipeline Operations Following Drone Attacks

Saudi Arabia, Opec’s biggest producer, has restarted operations at its East-West Pipeline and could resume exports from the Red Sea port of Yanbu later on Tuesday. According to sources cited by Reuters, the pipeline was pumping at a low rate.

Operations were previously halted after drone attacks forced Saudi Arabia to shut down the East-West Pipeline on September 13, suspending crude loadings at the kingdom's Yanbu port.

This development unfolds as Saudi Arabia simultaneously increases oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz. Over the weekend, Opec’s biggest producer loaded seven super tankers with a capacity to carry 14 million barrels of oil from export terminals inside the Gulf. Noureldeen Al Hammoury, chief market strategist at Equiti Group, told The National that satellite data from the EU's Sentinel system highlights this shift back towards Hormuz.

Al Hammoury noted that the surge in Gulf loadings helped push Brent crude below $100 per barrel for the first time in recent weeks, settling around $100 on September 21.

On Tuesday, Brent traded down 2.52 per cent to $97.81 a barrel at 2.19pm UAE time, while West Texas Intermediate slipped 3.11 per cent to $89.5 per barrel.