🛢 Sidestepping the Hormuz squeeze: Has Saudi Arabia's desert pipeline flipped Iran's blockade script?

As Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz—a retaliatory move against US-Israeli hostilities —chokes global oil supplies, a strategic pipeline built by Saudi Arabia in the early 1980s is undergoing its first major stress test.

As the crisis intensifies, the Saudis have activated their East–West Crude Oil Pipeline—better known as the Petroline—at maximum capacity, offering a critical bypass to the blocked Strait of Hormuz.

🔶 The approximately 1,200 kilometer-long dual-pipe system was constructed during the Iran-Iraq War and became operational in 1981 as a strategic response to shipping threats in the Persian Gulf at that time.  

🔶 It connects the Abqaiq oil processing complex in the Eastern Province to the Red Sea export terminal at Yanbu

🔶 The pipeline has a maximum capacity of 7 million bpd: About 2 million bpd is used to supply domestic refineries, leaving 5 million bpd for export

Saudi Arabia is ramping up the pipeline to its maximum capacity, with Aramco CEO Amin Nasser confirming that the conduit would reach its full capacity of 7 million barrels per day (bpd) within days, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights.

⚠️However, this is far less than the roughly 20 million bpd of oil that typically transits via the Strait of Hormuz.  

Furthermore, the pipeline system was designed primarily for crude oil and cannot handle refined petroleum products (like diesel and jet fuel) that also pass through the strait.

👉 While the oil is safe from the Strait of Hormuz, it exits from ports that are vulnerable to other threats. 

The Red Sea port of Yanbu is within target range of the Shiite military-political movement Ansar Allah (the Houthis), which controls most of Yemen's Red Sea coast, and has a history of attacking any ships linked to Israel amid its support for the Palestinians.

👍 US-Israel-Iran war | @geopolitics_prime