Saudi Pipeline Attack Cuts Millions of Barrels as Hormuz Stays Shut
Drone attacks disabled a section of Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline in the week before September 17, 2026, halting westbound flow and removing 4-5 million barrels per day from global supply, according to Al Jazeera.
The line runs 1,200km from the Abqaiq processing centre in the east, where crude is prepared for export, to Yanbu port on the Red Sea in the west. The Associated Press, citing two regional officials, estimated repairs will take three to five weeks. That timeline sets the disruption window for Red Sea loadings.
The outage adds to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a 39km shipping choke point that connects the Gulf to the Gulf of Oman. The strait has largely stayed closed since the United States-Israel war on Iran began on February 28. Before the crisis, Saudi Arabia exported about 7-8 million bpd, with most seaborne oil loading at Ras Tanura and Ras al-Ju'aymah on the Gulf. Ras Tanura averaged about 5.4 million bpd in 2025. Total Saudi loadings topped 7.5 million bpd in January and February 2026, then fell to about 2.3 million bpd in August and about 2.1 million bpd in the first half of September, a drop of more than 70 percent.
With both export corridors limited, Saudi Arabia is rerouting crude by dark shipments — tankers sailing with tracking turned off — and ship-to-ship transfers off Oman, where oil moves between tankers at sea, according to Al Jazeera. Saudi Aramco is offering more crude to Asian term customers, buyers on long-term contracts, through STS transfers off Sohar in Oman, according to PortNews. The Kingdom is reducing shipments to Europe after the damage, according to Egypt Oil & Gas. LSEG research specialist Rishi Rajanala said Saudi options include shipping more crude from Gulf terminals through the Strait of Hormuz, including STS transfers off Sohar.
Workarounds outside Hormuz were already forming. In August 2026, Aramco was in talks to supply Arab Medium and Arab Heavy crude, two Saudi grades, via STS transfers off Fujairah, according to Reuters. Crude exported from Oman does not need to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. The UAE is accelerating a separate pipeline project to bypass Hormuz, a plan reported in May.
The broader context here is supply with no spare path. Yanbu gave Riyadh a Red Sea outlet that avoided Hormuz. Hormuz gave volume. With westbound pipeline flow stopped, neither route is fully open. The margin is gone.
Looking at what this means for buyers and operators, the shift favors Asian term buyers with STS capacity off Sohar and Fujairah over European loadings from Yanbu. Dark shipments and offshore transfers keep barrels moving but complicate tracking, vetting and insurance. Europe absorbs the cut. The three-to-five-week repair estimate is now the market's central timeline, with Gulf loadings, Omani STS volumes and UAE bypass progress as the variables to watch.
