Saudi East–West pipeline/terminals
Updated
What it is
The Saudi East–West Pipeline, known as Petroline, is a 745-mile dual pipeline system built in 1981 that carries crude oil from the Abqaiq processing complex in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province overland to the Red Sea export terminal at Yanbu, entirely bypassing the Strait of Hormuz. Its capacity was expanded to about 7 million barrels per day after 2019 Houthi drone strikes on Abqaiq prompted Aramco to convert parallel natural-gas-liquids lines to crude service.
Why it matters lately
After the February 28, 2026 outbreak of war between the U.S./Israel and Iran led Iran to effectively close the Strait of Hormuz, Saudi Aramco activated contingency plans and by late March 2026 was running Petroline at its full 7 million barrel-per-day capacity, routing roughly 5 million barrels a day of crude exports through Yanbu. Even at full capacity the pipeline only partially offsets the loss of the roughly 15 million barrels a day that normally transited Hormuz.
Asymmetric Analytics view
Inference (AA): Petroline's finite 7 mbd ceiling versus Hormuz's much larger pre-war throughput is a key quantitative constraint AA uses to judge how much Gulf oil supply can realistically be rerouted during a Hormuz disruption.