Saudi Arabia
Holder of most of the world's spare oil capacity and of the largest pipeline route around the Strait of Hormuz.
Role in each timeline
- Hormuz Disrupted: The Closure, the Reopening That Did Not Hold, and $114 Oil
Led the September increase in Gulf crude exports, but its East-West Pipeline disruption helped drive the September price spike.
- Around the Strait: The Pipelines Gulf Oil Uses When Hormuz Is Shut
Country whose crude flows were routed through the East-West Pipeline and whose pipeline was shut after attacks.
Saudi Arabia across every timeline
Every dated entry that names Saudi Arabia, from all 2 timelines, newest first.
- Saudi Arabia says Petroline is back to 5.8 million barrels a day, five or six days after the strike on it Response
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.
on Around the Strait: The Pipelines Gulf Oil Uses When Hormuz Is Shut - East-West Pipeline partially resumes flows after repair Shipment
Saudi Arabia's East-West Pipeline was repaired and partially resumed flows as of 22 September. Vortexa ship-tracking data indicated that oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz increased slightly in September as Saudi Arabia used ship-to-ship transfers along Oman's coast.
on Hormuz Disrupted: The Closure, the Reopening That Did Not Hold, and $114 Oil - Brent reaches $131 after East-West Pipeline disruption Update
The disruption of Saudi Arabia's East-West Pipeline led Brent's daily spot price to reach $131 per barrel on 15 September. The IEA also reported that attacks had caused the shutdown of the pipeline.
on Hormuz Disrupted: The Closure, the Reopening That Did Not Hold, and $114 Oil - Gulf producers' crude exports rise to 13.9 million barrels per day Shipment
The International Energy Agency estimated that crude exports from Gulf producers increased by 4.4 million barrels per day to 13.9 million barrels per day in September. The report said Saudi Arabia led the increase and exports reached over 75% of pre-war levels.
on Hormuz Disrupted: The Closure, the Reopening That Did Not Hold, and $114 Oil - Attacks shut the East-West Pipeline in early September, closing the main way around the strait Delay
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.
on Around the Strait: The Pipelines Gulf Oil Uses When Hormuz Is Shut - IEA said Saudi Arabia ramped East-West Pipeline flows for Yanbu exports Shipment
The International Energy Agency said Saudi Arabia rapidly ramped up crude oil flows through the East-West Pipeline. It said the flows were for export through the Red Sea port of Yanbu.
on Around the Strait: The Pipelines Gulf Oil Uses When Hormuz Is Shut - Two pipelines, three different numbers each: design capacity, operator claim, and what is actually flowing Report
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.
on Around the Strait: The Pipelines Gulf Oil Uses When Hormuz Is Shut - Twenty million barrels a day go through the strait, and at most five and a half can go around it Report
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.
on Around the Strait: The Pipelines Gulf Oil Uses When Hormuz Is Shut