Saudi Aramco is preparing to leave European term customers without October crude even as it builds an alternate export chain through the Gulf and Oman, turning damage to the kingdom’s East-West Pipeline into a geographic reshuffling of supply rather than a uniform halt to Saudi exports.
Bloomberg reported Friday, citing people informed of the decision, that at least two European refiners were told they would receive zero crude allocations next month. The sources said the decision applies to all European buyers supplied under monthly term contracts.
Aramco has not publicly confirmed the cutoff.
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The reported October halt goes beyond the cargo cancellations and delays already emerging this week. Reuters reported that Saudi Arabia had suspended some European shipments after the pipeline outage, pushing Poland’s Orlen to seek replacement barrels.
Orlen, which Reuters said receives roughly 40% of its crude from Aramco, had already bought North Sea grades and sought US, Kazakh, Algerian, and Guyanese supply.
Saudi Arabia shut the roughly 1,200-kilometre East-West Pipeline after attacks on September 10 in the Riyadh and Madinah regions. Riyadh later said the drones were launched from Iraq. Reuters reported Thursday that satellite imagery and industry sources indicated three pumping stations were damaged. The line had been moving about 4 million to 5 million barrels per day toward the Red Sea port of Yanbu.
Industry sources estimated full repairs could take five to six weeks, although partial flows could resume sooner. Saudi authorities have not issued an official repair timeline.
Meanwhile, Aramco is trying to keep other exports moving. Traders told Reuters Friday that the company plans to ship about 60 million barrels from Ras Tanura during September and October, using ship-to-ship transfers near Sohar, Oman.
The flows average roughly 1 million to 1.5 million barrels per day, with buyers in China, South Korea, India, and Japan.
The route sends Saudi crude back through the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint the East-West Pipeline was designed to bypass.
