Strait Blockage Leads to 50% Drop in Saudi March Oil Exports

  April 1: According to foreign media reports, Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports dropped by half in March due to disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, forcing the country to reroute shipments to its west coast. Tanker-tracking data shows that average exports for the month stood at 3.33 million barrels per day (bpd), compared with 6.66 million bpd in February. Without the ability to transfer crude oil to Red Sea export terminals, this decline would have been even steeper. Following the outbreak of the Middle East conflict, Saudi Arabia swiftly shifted crude oil exports from Gulf terminals to its east-west pipeline. This pipeline transports crude oil from eastern Saudi oilfields to refineries and ports along the Red Sea coast, with a transport capacity of approximately 7 million bpd. When operating at full capacity, the pipeline supplies around 5 million bpd of crude oil available for export from Yanbu, while the remainder is allocated to refineries near Riyadh and along the west coast, or used for power generation and seawater desalination facilities along the Red Sea coast.