LONDON — Saudi Arabia risks losing up to about 4 million barrels per day of oil exports — roughly 4% of global supply — if it cannot restart its East-West crude pipeline within days, industry sources told Reuters on Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026.

The 1,200-kilometer (745-mile) Petroline, which moves crude across the kingdom to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, has been shut since Friday after drone attacks. Over the past six months it had been used to reroute around 4 million bpd around the disrupted Strait of Hormuz, Reuters’s sources said.

Yanbu stocks: five to seven days

Three sources familiar with Saudi exports said stocks at Yanbu can keep shipments going for only five to seven days without pipeline flows. Additional barrels stored at Egypt’s Ain Sukhna and Sidi Kerir could cover customers for several more days, a fourth source said — but inventories at all three sites are below full capacity and will run down without fresh crude from the East-West line.

Industry estimates cited by Reuters put Yanbu storage around 35 million barrels, Ain Sukhna about 18 million, and Sidi Kerir about 20 million. Repair timelines remain opaque: one source floated five to six weeks; another said partial pumping could resume sooner while work continues. Saudi Arabia’s energy ministry and government media office did not immediately comment, Reuters reported.

Already the tightest Saudi flows in decades

The outage lands on top of a wartime collapse in Gulf exports. Saudi Arabia told OPEC last week that crude production fell to 6.2 million bpd in August from 10.9 million bpd in February. The International Energy Agency said Friday that Saudi supply hit a more-than-three-decade low in August and that world oil supply will drop about 5.7 million bpd (roughly 6%) this year. Hormuz flows are estimated at 6–9 million bpd versus about 22 million bpd from the Middle East before the war.

Risks on the Red Sea side are also up: Houthi fighters who have threatened Saudi oil shipments seized an island near the mouth of the Red Sea on Friday, Reuters noted.

Dated Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026: without a quick East-West restart, Yanbu’s bypass route — and up to ~4% of global oil — is on a short fuse.

Sources