Saudi oil routes constrained IRINN cites Hormuz return

Sep 11

IRINN cites The Wall Street Journal for Aramco increasing Gulf tanker loadings and trying to send more oil through Hormuz after alternative routes became constrained. It recalls Saudi use of the East–West pipeline to Yanbu, a drone attack on that pipeline and attacks on tankers in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab. It separately says Yemen announced it would block Saudi passage in response to the Saudi blockade. The account describes reported loading and intentions rather than establishing completion of every shipment or identifying the pipeline attacker.

Al Arabiya reports that the Saudi Energy Ministry announced a precautionary shutdown of the East–West crude pipeline on September 11 after repeated attacks from Iraqi territory, halting crude loading at Yanbu. Fox’s September 22 account describes restarting the line eleven days after drone damage forced its closure. IRINN, citing the Wall Street Journal, describes pipeline damage and separate attacks on Saudi tankers as constraints on alternative export routes. Those accounts distinguish the pipeline shutdown from the later restart and full restoration; the precise dates of the individual attacks are not established here. Kan’s September 24 regional feature attributes the pipeline stoppage to pro-Iranian Iraqi militias and separately describes a Houthi attack on Yanbu. Its embedded commentary says the pipeline went dark ‘this week’, without reconciling that wording with the September 11 shutdown and September 22 restart. Its connection to this closure remains provisional: the feature does not establish an exact attack date or a separate second shutdown. The militia and Iraqi-origin claims remain source attributions, not independently verified identification of the perpetrators.