Saudi Arabia resumes oil tanker loadings from its Red Sea port of Yanbu after restarting operations on the East-West pipeline, according to trade sources and shipping data.
Saudi Aramco notified customers on Monday of its October loading schedule from Yanbu, an Asian refining source said. The refiner also loaded a cargo from the port late last week.
Yanbu loadings were halted earlier this month after a drone attack on the pipeline, which Saudi Arabia blamed on Iraqi militias. The pipeline was shut on September 11, before operations resumed last Tuesday.
Crude flows recover
Satellite imagery from the European Space Agency also indicated that oil loading had resumed at Yanbu and the nearby Al Muajjiz terminal.
“ESA satellite imagery captured over the Red Sea on September 27 shows Saudi Arabia loading nearly 10 million barrels of crude oil at Yanbu and Al Muajjiz,” vessel-tracking firm TankerTrackers.com said on X.
The company also identified refined-product loadings and 40 tankers in the area.
Two trade sources estimated crude loadings from Yanbu at about 2 million barrels per day since last week.
Pipeline throughput is currently about 2 million barrels per day, according to an industry source, compared with its 7 million barrels per day capacity.
Kpler expects flows to rise to 3-4 million barrels per day in the coming days, although a return to the pre-attack rate of about 5.5 million barrels per day could take another month.
Kpler said crude inventories at the Yanbu terminal rose by about 1 million barrels on September 22, the first increase since the attack.
Middle East exports show signs of recovery
The restart of Yanbu loadings adds to signs of increasing Middle East oil shipments following a recovery in exports through the Strait of Hormuz.
Crude loadings at Egypt’s Sidi Kerir terminal also resumed on September 22 after a 10-day halt, although tankers remain queued offshore as restrictions continue to limit access for much of the commercial fleet, Kpler said.
