Saudi Arabia announced on 12 April the completion of repairs on the vital 7mn b/d East-West crude oil pipeline to Yanbu, enabling it to again operate at full capacity. The repairs were on a pumping station damaged by an Iranian attack on 8 April (MEES, 10 April).
The attack on one of the 1,200km pipeline system’s 11 pumping stations caused throughput capacity to drop by 700,000 b/d. The pipeline brings crude oil from Aramco’s fields in Eastern Province to the port of Yanbu on the Red Sea coast for onwards export and refining. With the Strait of Hormuz closed due to the Middle East conflict, the pipeline is by far the largest Hormuz-bypass route and the only conduit for Saudi oil exports. It is a lifeline for the continued export of oil from the Middle East that has prevented the historic supply shock from being even more damaging. (CONTINUED - 677 WORDS)
