Saudi Arabia eyes alternative oil export routes via Yanbu Port as war disrupts exports

ISTANBUL

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, is attempting to benefit from alternative export routes via Yanbu Port as the ongoing war in the Middle East disrupts exports.

Located on the Red Sea coast, Yanbu has become a central component of the kingdom’s strategy to secure uninterrupted crude shipments, according to data from Kpler on Wednesday.

The port is connected to oil fields in eastern Saudi Arabia via the 1,200-kilometer (nearly 745.6-mile) long East-West pipeline, enabling crude to bypass the Strait of Hormuz.

Prior to Feb. 28, exports from the port averaged around 0.8 million barrels per day. By mid-March, between March 15 and 26, that figure had surged to approximately 3.94 million barrels per day, signaling a rapid scale-up in usage, data by Kpler showed.

This shift comes as Saudi Arabia’s overall oil exports showed fluctuation, with daily exports declining from 7.1 million barrels in February to 4.3 million barrels in March, according to data.

The Strait of Hormuz has been effectively disrupted since early March. Around 20 million barrels of oil normally pass through it daily, and the disruption has driven up shipping costs and pushed global oil prices higher.

Yanbu has been one of the two major export outlets for crude oil out of Gulf countries since Iran closed the Strait of ‌Hormuz in retaliation for US-Israeli attacks that started on Feb. 28.