Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Saudi Arabia’s closure of its East-West oil pipeline after a recent attack has added to worries over tighter global energy supplies and higher prices for fuel and other essentials. The shutdown comes as the war with Iran has already disrupted oil flows from the Middle East and pushed Brent crude, the international benchmark, above USD 105 a barrel on Monday.
Saudi Arabia, the Middle East’s biggest oil producer, shut the pipeline on Friday after the attack, which it blamed on drones launched by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq. Two regional officials told The Associated Press that repairs could take three to five weeks. The pipeline is important because it allows some crude to leave the region through the Red Sea instead of the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supply passed before the US and Israel attacked Iran in February. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have also seized islands along key Red Sea shipping routes, adding to pressure on Saudi exports.
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The East-West pipeline runs about 1,200 kilometres across Saudi Arabia, carrying oil from a processing facility near the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea. From there, crude is usually loaded on to tankers that head north to Europe through the Suez Canal or south through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait towards Asia.
The pipeline was built in the 1980s amid fears that Tehran would disrupt shipping through Hormuz during the Iran-Iraq war. During the first six months of the current war, it was crucial in keeping at least some oil moving out of the Middle East while most tanker traffic in Hormuz remained at a standstill. Rystad Energy said on Monday that an average 2.6 million to 4 million barrels a day had moved through the pipeline and out of the Red Sea port of Yanbu since late August, a volume it said is now at risk of “disappearing from the market”. According to the International Energy Agency, 4 million barrels a day is about 4 per cent of global oil supply. The IEA said Saudi Arabia produced nearly 10 million barrels a day in September 2025, but was down to 6 million barrels a day in August.
Janiv Shah, vice president of oil markets at Rystad Energy, said the recent rise in Brent prices shows the market is already reacting to “a significant loss of supply”. He added that Saudi inventories could support exports in the coming days, but that could “change quickly”.
The Strait of Hormuz remains central to the market. Before the war, about 20 million barrels passed through the strait each day. Some tankers have resumed using the route, but traffic is still far below earlier levels. Maritime data company Lloyd’s List Intelligence counted 90 transits in the first week of September, against about 130 ships a day before the war.
The Houthis have also tightened their hold on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a key route for the southern Red Sea. Analysts at Melius Research estimated that about 3 million barrels a day were moving through Bab el-Mandeb in early September, but said on Monday that “it’s likely zero now”. Because of Houthi attacks, most Saudi traffic from Yanbu had been moving north to the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal or Egypt’s SUMED pipeline. But the Houthis have also started targeting Saudi shipping in the north. Salvatore Mercogliano, a professor of maritime history at Campbell University in North Carolina, said Hormuz at least remains available. “If this (East-West pipeline) was the only method for Saudi Arabia to get their oil out it would be absolutely cataclysmic,” he said. “But since the Hormuz route has opened back up — not completely but opened up some — it’s not the death knell for Saudi Arabia. They’re getting oil out.”
Supply pressures have already sent prices sharply higher across the world, and analysts say the latest disruption could increase the burden on consumers in the coming weeks and months. One immediate effect is on fuel costs and household energy bills, with countries in Asia and Africa, which depend more on Middle East imports, seeing some of the sharpest increases.
According to Global Petrol Prices, diesel prices in Nigeria are now 92 per cent higher than in late February, while petrol prices are up nearly 61 per cent. Indonesia has seen diesel rise 87 per cent and petrol 38 per cent, while in Lebanon diesel is up 80 per cent and petrol 46 per cent. In the US, regular petrol averaged nearly USD 4.32 a gallon on Monday, up almost 45 per cent from USD 2.98 before the war, according to AAA. Diesel reached another record high, without adjusting for inflation, at USD 6.23 a gallon on average, up nearly 66 per cent from the start of the war. Diesel costs also feed into the prices of other goods because the fuel is used by long-distance trucks, delivery networks and farm equipment. Melius Research analysts said on Monday, “An inflationary spillover is likely,” and added, “The diesel crunch is also coming ahead of the US harvesting and heating season.”
The closure of the East-West pipeline has therefore deepened concerns over oil supply from the Middle East at a time when routes through Hormuz and the Red Sea are already under strain, with the risk of further pressure on fuel and household costs worldwide.
With PTI Inputs
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
