Saudis seek to boost Hormuz oil exports as key pipeline attacked

Published Tue, Sep 15, 2026 · 08:28 AM

[DUBAI] Saudi Arabia is seeking to further boost oil supply through the Strait of Hormuz after attacks forced it to halt a key pipeline that has been the main means of getting its crude to global markets during the Iran war, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The kingdom had been raising shipments through the contested Hormuz waterway in the first 10 days of this month, from August levels, and is now trying to increase supplies further, the person said, asking not to be identified because the plans are confidential.

Saudi Arabia closed the East-West pipeline, the primary link that helped the country circumvent the Iran war-induced turmoil in Hormuz, after at least two points along the route were targeted last week.

The halt puts at risk millions of barrels a day that were moving through the pipeline at a time when markets are clamouring for supply, with crude near US$110 in London in recent days.

Saudi Aramco declined to comment and the energy ministry said it had nothing to add to its statement on Friday (Sep 11).

The pipeline will be out of service for several weeks, the Associated Press reported on Monday, citing two regional officials.

Meanwhile, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said he expects the conduit to be up and running “very soon”.

A pumping station along the pipeline was also targeted in April as part of a wave of attacks on production, refining and petrochemical facilities.

The link had suffered only limited damage and flows had continued, people familiar with the matter said at the time. Supplies returned to normal levels within days. 

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Even prior to last week’s attacks, loading rates were gradually ramping up, while an armada of more than a dozen Saudi ships had begun to wait just outside the Strait of Hormuz in recent weeks.

Satellite images indicate an uptick in tankers loading at a major Saudi export terminal in the Persian Gulf over the last few days.

Still, any effort to put more barrels through the waterway would also have to confront a dramatic shortage of ships that has sent freight costs to the highest on record.

Saudi Arabia operates a vast tanker fleet, but sometimes hires extra vessels to support its operations. The cost of hauling oil from its ports inside the Persian Gulf to China neared US$1 million a day on Friday for the first time ever.

Saudi shipments

It is not immediately clear how much and how quickly Saudi Aramco can increase Hormuz shipments to offset the pipeline’s shutdown.

The company had been raising its total exports closer to four million barrels a day in early September, with about one million a day going out through Hormuz and the remainder via the port of Yanbu on the Red Sea coast, where the East-West pipeline terminates, the person familiar said. 

Total shipments had dropped to about three million a day in August, the lowest in at least nine years, according to tanker-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg, Vortexa and Kpler.

The slide followed increasing risk from the Yemen-based Houthi militants, who said in July that they would blockade Saudi shipping in response to a siege on the Yemeni capital. The group has since hit vessels, including a supertanker, and various energy sites inside the kingdom. 

At the same time, the usual export route that Saudi Arabia and other major producers in the Gulf use through the Strait of Hormuz has been fraught with risk since the war started more than six months ago.

While some like the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Kuwait have been getting tankers out through the waterway at the risk of attacks, Riyadh has tended to send fewer through, likely because it had supplies flowing through the East-West pipeline.

The 1,200 km link that runs across the Arabian peninsula has turned out to be a lifeline for oil markets after Saudi Arabia activated the link within days of the Iran war.

It shifted flows away from the virtually shut Strait of Hormuz toward the Red Sea and quickly reached the link’s full capacity of seven million barrels a day, with about five million earmarked for exports and the remainder used at refineries along the coast. BLOOMBERG