Saudi Arabia eyes half East-West pipeline capacity within days: Report

Saudi Arabia is seeking to restore around half of the capacity of its cross-country oil pipeline within days after operations were halted last week following drone attacks, Bloomberg reported, citing a source familiar with the matter.

According to the source, Saudi Aramco is working to bypass a damaged section of the route, which would allow it to resume operating part of the pipeline’s capacity.

The company aims to restore the pipeline to full capacity within around six weeks, the source said.

Following the pipeline shutdown, Aramco began increasing oil sales from an area located just outside the Strait of Hormuz to offset some of the lost volumes. The company sold around 20 million barrels of oil this week to Asian refineries, including refineries in China, which can be delivered in September and October, according to traders familiar with the matter.

The pipeline was targeted several times in the Riyadh and Madinah regions on Thursday. Thus, it was shut down as a precaution, and the attacks resulted in several injuries, with medical care provided to those affected, according to Argaam data.