Arabian Post Staff -Dubai
Brent crude futures for November traded around $105.50 a barrel after settling at $105.28 on Monday, while US West Texas Intermediate was near $93. Prices had risen earlier as traders weighed continuing disruption risks across the Middle East against recovering exports from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Saudi Arabia has resumed crude exports through the East-West pipeline after repairs to damage caused by drone attacks this month. The route carries oil from the kingdom’s eastern producing region to Yanbu on the Red Sea, allowing shipments to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, where the conflict with Iran has disrupted normal tanker traffic.
The restart reopens Red Sea loading options at Yanbu after the pipeline shutdown constrained westward movements. Before the attacks, the route was carrying several million barrels daily, underscoring its role as Saudi Arabia’s alternative to Hormuz.
The pipeline can handle as much as 7 million barrels a day, although about 2 million barrels a day is typically required by refineries on Saudi Arabia’s west coast. Saudi Aramco said in May that the system had reached its maximum capacity during the first quarter as the company sought to maintain supplies amid shipping constraints around Hormuz.
The restoration gives Riyadh greater flexibility to move crude while maritime risks persist. Saudi Arabia had also increased shipments through the Gulf as tanker movements through Hormuz recovered from the severe disruption earlier in the conflict. Combined Saudi and UAE crude exports reached about 12.8 million barrels a day in September, their highest level since February, according to ship-tracking data.
The improvement in physical flows has nevertheless failed to remove the geopolitical premium from crude prices. US and Iranian officials have been communicating separately with mediators in an attempt to find terms for ending the conflict, but fundamental differences remain over sanctions, frozen Iranian assets, the Strait of Hormuz and Tehran’s nuclear programme.
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Washington had offered Iran “nothing”, rejecting suggestions that his administration had proposed sanctions relief or access to frozen funds. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said Tehran remains prepared for diplomacy but will not accept negotiations conducted under coercion.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met Qatari mediators in New York as indirect contacts continued. Tehran’s proposal has linked reopening Hormuz to steps including sanctions relief, the release of frozen assets and an end to the US blockade of Iranian ports, with nuclear negotiations to follow. Washington has insisted that nuclear issues must form part of any settlement.
The lack of a breakthrough leaves energy markets exposed to abrupt changes in shipping conditions. Hormuz remains one of the world’s most important oil transit points. Before the disruption, flows through the strait averaged 20.9 million barrels a day in the first half of 2025, equivalent to roughly one-fifth of global petroleum liquids consumption, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
Alternative pipelines cannot fully replace that capacity. The Energy Information Administration estimates Saudi Arabia’s East-West route and the UAE’s Abu Dhabi pipeline together can provide about 4.7 million barrels a day of capacity to bypass Hormuz during a disruption. That makes the Saudi pipeline’s return important for maintaining exports but insufficient by itself to eliminate the market’s exposure to the strait.
Saudi Aramco’s system runs from the Abqaiq processing area near the Gulf to the Red Sea coast. Its temporary expansion to 7 million barrels a day has made Yanbu a critical outlet when Gulf shipping is constrained, giving Saudi crude access to international buyers without traversing Hormuz.
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