Saudi Arabia resumed oil exports via the East-West pipeline

Saudi Arabia has resumed oil exports through the key East-West pipeline. Bloomberg reports this with reference to a source directly familiar with the situation.

The cross-country pipeline was repaired after drone strikes in early September. State-owned Saudi Aramco has already tested infrastructure and has been increasing pressure to resume meaningful deliveries by the weekend. Now deliveries abroad have resumed.

The resumption of supplies would give Saudi Arabia back access to an alternative export route it used during the war with Iran, even as the kingdom increased shipments through the Strait of Hormuz this month - which the kingdom used to ramp up exports to a wartime peak of more than 5 million barrels a day in September.

It could take about six weeks for supplies to fully resume, the sources said. The route through the Persian Gulf remains fraught with risk, with ships occasionally being attacked and the US-Iran war now in its seventh month.