Saudi Arabia has begun restoring crude exports through its Red Sea route after restarting the East-West Pipeline, easing some of the disruption to Middle Eastern oil flows caused by the conflict with Iran.
State oil giant Saudi Aramco has resumed loadings from the Yanbu port and notified customers of its October loading schedule, according to trade sources and shipping data cited by Reuters. The development provides an alternative export route as shipments through the Strait of Hormuz remain heavily constrained.
Saudi Arabia shut the East-West Pipeline on September 11 after drone attacks that Riyadh blamed on Iraqi militias. The shutdown halted crude exports from Yanbu, leaving the kingdom more dependent on routes exposed to disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz.
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Pipeline operations resumed last Tuesday, and an Asian refining source said Aramco notified customers on Monday evening of its October loading programme from Yanbu. The refiner also loaded a cargo from Yanbu late last week.
The return of Yanbu is significant because the East-West Pipeline, also known as the Petroline, provides Saudi Arabia with a route for moving crude from its eastern oil-producing region to the Red Sea, allowing barrels to bypass the Strait of Hormuz before being shipped to international buyers.
Satellite imagery indicates that the recovery in physical exports is already substantial. Tanker-tracking firm TankerTrackers.com said European Space Agency imagery captured on September 27 showed Saudi Arabia loading nearly 10 million barrels of crude at Yanbu and Al Muajjiz, a terminal south of Yanbu.
“We also observed refined-product loadings. In total, we visually identified 40 tankers, regardless of their activity or proximity to these terminals,” TankerTrackers.com wrote in a post on X on Tuesday.
Two trade sources separately estimated crude loadings from Yanbu at about 2 million barrels per day since last week, suggesting that the Red Sea route is already absorbing a meaningful portion of Saudi Arabia’s export volumes.
Kpler, however, estimates that pipeline throughput is currently lower, at around 2.65 million bpd. The shipping-data provider expects flows to rise to between 3 million and 4 million bpd in the coming days, although a full recovery to the pre-attack rate of roughly 5.5 million bpd could take another month.
The pipeline has not yet returned to normal capacity, but every additional barrel reaching the Red Sea reduces the amount of Saudi crude that must depend on the more vulnerable Gulf shipping corridor.
Middle East Exports Recover, But Hormuz Remains The Constraint
The Yanbu restart comes as the conflict has sharply disrupted oil movements through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important energy chokepoints. Before the conflict, roughly one-fifth of global oil supplies moved through the waterway.
Shipping data show that flows through Hormuz have recovered from their lowest levels, but remain well below normal. Kpler estimates that crude transits through the strait, including ship-to-ship activity in the Gulf of Oman, averaged about 9 million bpd in the seven days through September 22.
That was up considerably from the late-July low of 2.2 million bpd, but represented only about 60% of the 2025 average.
The recovery through alternative export routes is therefore becoming an important component of the broader supply picture. Kpler estimates that when net gains from Yanbu and Fujairah are included, Middle East crude exports have risen to just under 80% of pre-conflict levels.
Saudi Arabia is not the only producer using alternative routes to restore exports. Crude loadings at Egypt’s Sidi Kerir terminal resumed on September 22 following a 10-day interruption, although Kpler said tankers remained queued offshore because restrictions were still limiting access for much of the commercial fleet.
The restart of Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline also appears to be showing up in inventories. Kpler said crude stocks at the Yanbu terminal increased by roughly 1 million barrels on September 22, marking the first inventory build since the September 11 attack.
For oil markets, the latest data point to a gradual reopening of supply channels rather than a full return to normal. Saudi Arabia’s ability to redirect crude toward Yanbu gives the kingdom an additional outlet while Hormuz remains impaired, but the pipeline’s current throughput is still well below its approximately 5.5 million bpd pre-attack rate.
The difference between a partial recovery and full capacity will remain important for prices. If Yanbu reaches 3 million to 4 million bpd in the coming days as Kpler expects, it could materially reduce the immediate supply deficit created by the disruption. A return to 5.5 million bpd would provide a substantially larger buffer, but that recovery could take several more weeks.
The broader picture is therefore one of improving physical supply without the underlying shipping risk disappearing. Hormuz crude movements remain below their normal level, Sidi Kerir continues to face access constraints, and Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea pipeline has yet to regain full capacity.
The resumption of Yanbu loadings nevertheless gives Middle Eastern producers more room to move barrels around the region at a time when the conflict has made the geography of oil exports almost as important as the volume of crude being produced.