The halt of the pipeline, which has the capacity to ship about 7 million barrels a day to the kingdom’s Yanbu hub on the Red Sea, knocks out Saudi Arabia’s most important workaround since the Iran war choked off exports from the Persian Gulf.

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Oil surged on a report that Saudi Arabia may take weeks to reopen a pipeline that’s been key to bypassing the Strait of Hormuz during the US-Iran war.Brent rose about 5 per cent toward $110 a barrel, before paring gains slightly. The kingdom’s East-West pipeline, which was halted after it was struck by militants, will be out of service for several weeks, the Associated Press reported, citing two regional officials. Saudi energy ministry officials didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Saudi Aramco didn’t respond to earlier inquiries about how long the disruption would last. US Energy Secretary Chris Wright, meanwhile, said on Monday he expects the Saudi pipeline to be up and running “very soon.” The halt of the pipeline, which has the capacity to ship about 7 million barrels a day to the kingdom’s Yanbu hub on the Red Sea, knocks out Saudi Arabia’s most important workaround since the Iran war choked off exports from the Persian Gulf. The market impact will depend on how much oil can be drawn from storage at Yanbu, how long it will take to get crude flowing again and how much can be rerouted by sneaking barrels through the Strait of Hormuz.“It all boils down to the duration,” said June Goh, senior oil market analyst at Sparta Commodities SA. If flows resume quickly, the impact should be limited as inventories at Yanbu, the pipeline’s western end, could be tapped, she said. But a prolonged shutdown could force output cuts, she added. Oil prices were already rallying before the attack. The global benchmark moved back above $100 for the first time since July last week, as sliding inventories and rising Chinese buying tightened the market. Brent crude is up more than 75 per cent this year. The crisis is delivering an inflationary jolt to the global economy as the cost of natural gas and fuels also surge. After US data showed the pace of consumer price gains marched higher in August, the Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise rates this week.The market for oil products has been especially strained. Diesel futures are trading at around $200 a barrel, as fuel supplies have been disrupted in both the Middle East and Russia, where Ukrainian strikes have hindered refining capacity. Over the weekend, President Donald Trump said he’d warned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to stop targeting Russian refineries, after the strikes curtailed diesel production and helped drive prices for the fuel to record levels.Refiners are now paying enormous premiums to secure crude as the cost of selling fuels is soaring. They’re willing to pay record amounts for ships to carry those barrels across the world, with vessel availability also incredibly scarce. Meantime, tensions over the vital Strait of Hormuz remain high, as diplomacy appears far from yielding a solution. A meeting between Iran and several Gulf Arab nations over a temporary shipping lane through the waterway was postponed, highlighting tensions with the Islamic Republic following the recent flare-up in fighting.Wright said he was confident that flows through Hormuz will increase in the weeks ahead, and that over 12 million barrels went through the chokepoint last night.Even before the assault on the East-West conduit, oil output from Saudi Arabia had been under pressure. Riyadh recently reported to OPEC that its crude production last month sank to the lowest level since 1990.The kingdom’s storage at Yanbu could support exports for five to seven days, but a pipeline outage beyond that would cause “huge disruption,” said Suvro Sarkar, head of energy research at DBS Bank Ltd. Pending clarity on repairs, the near-term path pointed toward a test of $120 a barrel, he said.Published on September 14, 2026