المنشور

#SaudiOilPipelineDamaged Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline remains offline after a drone strike, with repairs expected to take several weeks. The pipeline is a crucial alternative route that moves crude toward Yanbu on the Red Sea when shipping through the Strait of Hormuz is restricted. Recent estimates suggest it handled between 2.6 million and 4 million barrels per day, while Yanbu inventories may cover only several days of exports. The risk has increased after Houthi forces seized strategic islands near the Bab-el-Mandeb shipping route. If Saudi Arabia cannot restore pipeline capacity quickly, affected exports could represent a meaningful share of global supply. Oil prices above $100 are already increasing inflation expectations and transportation costs. The most important variables now are repair timing, Saudi inventory levels and whether alternative routes can operate safely. A temporary outage is manageable; a prolonged outage could become a global supply shock.