Saudi East-West Oil Pipeline Out for 3 to 5 Weeks

Saudi Arabia closed its East-West pipeline on Friday after drone attacks it blamed on Iran-backed militias in Iraq, according to AP reporting carried by Fortune (Wyatte Grantham-Philips and Mae Anderson, 14 September 2026). Two regional officials told AP that repairs could take three to five weeks. The strikes hit stretches in the Riyadh and Medina regions, and injuries were reported.

That three-to-five-week window is what two regional officials told AP. It is not a published Saudi Energy Ministry timetable. Oil prices cited below are futures prints, not a government price decree.

The East-West line, also called Petroline, runs about 1,200 kilometers (roughly 746 miles) from Gulf-side processing near Abqaiq west to Yanbu on the Red Sea. It was built in the 1980s as a Hormuz bypass, and design capacity is cited at about 7 million barrels a day after expansions. Rystad told AP that an average 2.6 million to 4 million barrels a day moved through the pipeline and out of Yanbu since late August, a volume now at risk. The IEA says 4 million barrels a day is about 4% of global supply.

CNBC (Sam Meredith, 15 September 2026) adds the market colour. Rystad's Janiv Shah said Saudi inventories may cushion exports for about five to seven days, and that a longer disruption changes the price reaction quickly. Analysts told CNBC prices are unlikely to fall below $100 soon.

Fortune had Brent above $105 on Monday. CNBC's Tuesday morning print put November Brent at $106.29, up 0.6%, and October WTI at $102.61, up 1.2%. Brent is up more than 21% and WTI more than 25% over the past month.

Hormuz is only a partial offset. Before the war, about 20 million barrels a day, roughly a fifth of world oil, moved through the strait. Lloyd's List Intelligence counted 90 Hormuz transits in the first week of September, versus about 130 ships daily before the war. Houthis also threaten Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb routes that Yanbu cargoes would use.

Near-term Saudi exports may still run on inventories. Actual lost barrels depend on how fast those stocks drain and whether Hormuz or Red Sea alternatives partly replace Yanbu. CNBC also quoted Andy Lipow of Lipow Oil Associates suggesting repairs could take months. Riyadh has not published a restart timetable of its own.

Energy-price tape already on Finpresso includes Brent above $90 after the Larak Hormuz strikes, Nagel tying further ECB hikes to energy prices, and the 10-year Treasury yield at 5%.

Treat a multi-week East-West outage as a supply-shock watch on inventories and on Brent and WTI. Do not assume Hormuz or Red Sea routes fully replace Yanbu flows until Saudi repair confirmation lands.