Around the Strait: The Pipelines Gulf Oil Uses When Hormuz Is Shut

Bypass exports reach 5.6 million barrels a day, past the top of the capacity the IEA estimated

The October report put overall bypass exports up 970,000 barrels a day to 5.6 million, on the swift return of East-West pipeline flows. That is above the 3.5 to 5.5 million barrels a day of available alternative capacity the IEA's own chokepoint assessment had estimated in February, and it names 11 September as the date of the bombing that took the pipeline out — a day this page previously had only at month precision.

• International Energy Agency · Oct 14, 2026 · The 11 September bombing of the Saudi East-West Pipeline and an exponential rise in freight rates compounded the rally.

Saudi Arabia says Petroline is back to 5.8 million barrels a day, five or six days after the strike on it

Energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told a GCC forum panel in Manama that flows through the East-West Pipeline had recovered to 5.8 million barrels a day, and that the line had been back in use within five or six days of the drone strike that hit it the previous month. The figure is an operator statement rather than an observed flow, and it is almost three times what the IEA had recorded running through the line at the start of the year.

• Al Jazeera · Oct 6, 2026 · Not everyone knows that within five or six days, we began using the pipeline again after the major attack that struck it

Attacks shut the East-West Pipeline in early September, closing the main way around the strait

The IEA reported that attacks on the pipeline carrying Saudi crude to Yanbu shut it down in early September, curtailing bypass flows further. For the weeks it was down, the single largest alternative to the Strait of Hormuz was unavailable at the same time as the strait itself.

• International Energy Agency · Sep 18, 2026 · Attacks on the Saudi East-West pipeline that carries oil to Yanbu resulted in its shutdown in early September, curtailing bypass flows further.

led to Brent reaches $131 after East-West Pipeline disruption on Hormuz Disrupted: The Closure, the Reopening That Did Not Hold, and $114 Oil.

Editor's note: Repaired in review. The entry as proposed carried a second source, an AP report of a three-to-five-week repair estimate, whose quote is not on that page; the AP source and the repair-estimate claim were both removed. The date was also moved from 10 September to month precision, because the IEA says "early September" and no opened source gives the day.

Kpler said most Gulf of Oman transfer cargoes were likely UAE-origin

Kpler said most crude cargoes loaded through Gulf of Oman ship-to-ship operations were likely from the United Arab Emirates. It said the remaining cargoes comprised Kuwaiti and Iraqi barrels.

• Kpler · Jun 17, 2026 · Most of these cargoes are likely UAE-origin, with the remainder comprising Kuwaiti and Iraqi barrels.

Editor's note: The cited Kpler page, dated June 17, 2026, states that crude oil loaded from the Gulf of Oman after STS operations was mostly likely UAE-origin, with the remainder comprising Kuwaiti and Iraqi barrels.

Abu Dhabi orders a second Fujairah pipeline built faster, to double the capacity that avoids Hormuz

Ten weeks into the closure, Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince directed ADNOC to accelerate the West-East 1 line, a pipeline running parallel to the existing Habshan-Fujairah route and intended to double the company's export capacity through Fujairah. It is due to be operational in 2027. The decision converts a standing hedge against a Hormuz closure into a construction schedule, and it is the only new bypass capacity anyone has committed to since the strait shut.

• Khaleej Times · May 15, 2026 · Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has directed Adnoc on Friday to accelerate the delivery of the new West-East Pipeline project, which will double the oil giant's export capacity through Fujairah.
• ADNOC · May 15, 2026 · His Highness directed ADNOC to accelerate delivery of the project, as the company moves forward into a new phase of world-scale project execution to meet global energy demand.

result of Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz on Hormuz Disrupted: The Closure, the Reopening That Did Not Hold, and $114 Oil.

Editor's note: Official source added: https://adnoc.ae/en/news-and-media/press-releases/2026/khaled-bin-mohamed-bin-zayed--chairs-meeting-of-executive

Attack cut East-West Pipeline throughput by about 700,000 b/d

Saudi Arabia's Energy Ministry said an attack included a pumping station on the East-West Pipeline. It said the attack caused a loss of approximately 700,000 barrels per day in throughput.

• Saudi Press Agency / Saudi Ministry of Energy · Apr 9, 2026 · These attacks included one of the pumping stations on the East-West Pipeline, leading to a loss of approximately 700,000 barrels per day in throughput.

Editor's note: The cited SPA page attributes the statement to an official source at Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Energy and states that an attack included an East-West Pipeline pumping station, causing a loss of approximately 700,000 barrels per day in throughput. It is dated April 9, 2026.

Two pipelines, three different numbers each: design capacity, operator claim, and what is actually flowing

The UAE's Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline runs 400 km from Habshan to Fujairah with a nameplate of 1.5 million barrels a day and a reported current capacity near 1.8 million; the UAE was already using about 1.1 million of it, leaving room for perhaps 700,000 more. Saudi Arabia's Petroline is two lines from Abqaiq to Yanbu with a design capacity of 5 million barrels a day, which Aramco said in March 2025 it had raised to 7 million — a level the IEA notes has not been tested at sustainable flows. In early 2026 only about 2 million barrels a day of it was in use.

• International Energy Agency · Feb 2026 · The system is composed of two lines with a total design capacity of 5 mb/d of crude oil. In March 2025, Aramco reported that it had increased capacity to 7 mb/d, but sustainable flows have not been tested at this level. As of early 2026, it is estimated that about 2 mb/d of the pipeline’s capacity is used, leaving between 3 and 5 mb/d of spare capacity, depending on operational conditions and available export capacity on the Saudi West Coast.

Twenty million barrels a day go through the strait, and at most five and a half can go around it

The IEA's standing assessment of the chokepoint sets the arithmetic this page is about. Nearly 20 million barrels a day of crude and products were exported through the Strait of Hormuz in 2025, around a quarter of the world's seaborne oil trade, and only Saudi Arabia and the UAE have operational crude pipelines that can re-route any of it. The agency put the available bypass capacity at 3.5 to 5.5 million barrels a day, and warned that the logistics of actually moving substantial volumes that way have not been robustly tested.

• International Energy Agency · Feb 2026 · Only Saudi Arabia and the UAE have operational crude pipelines that could potentially re-route flows to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, with an estimated 3.5 to 5.5 mb/d of available capacity. While additional capacity may exist in major pipelines to bypass the Strait, the logistics and supply chains needed to re-route and export substantial flows have not been robustly tested.