Saudi Crude Exports Hit War-Time High After Pipeline Attack

According to CNBC, Bloomberg and other outlets citing tanker-tracking data, Saudi Arabia's September crude shipments climbed to their strongest monthly total since the U.S.-Iran war erupted about seven months earlier, as the kingdom moved cargoes through the Strait of Hormuz after a major pipeline was damaged.¹²³⁴

Conflicting figures on export volume

CNBC, the Saudi Gazette, UA.News and SEE.news reported that September crude shipments from Saudi Arabia averaged roughly 6 million barrels daily, marking the strongest pace since the war started. Bloomberg gave a different figure, which it said reflected differences in data cut-off timing and methodology compared with other trackers.¹⁶³⁴

Bloomberg reported that its tanker-tracking data diverges from estimates by Kpler because of differences in the timing of data cut-offs and in methodology. CryptoBriefing separately put the September average at 5.28 million barrels a day, describing it as the highest monthly figure since the conflict began in early 2026, after August exports had collapsed to between 2.4 and 3 million barrels a day, the kingdom's lowest in nine years. TASS, citing Reuters, said Saudi Arabia shipped around 2.4 million barrels a day in August and that the September level marked the highest since the U.S.-Israeli operation against Iran began in late February.²⁷⁵

CNBC and UA.News reported that shipments surged nearly 80 percent over August's level of 3.4 million barrels a day, a figure not corroborated elsewhere in the dossier, while the Saudi Gazette and SEE.news also cited an 80 percent month-on-month rise without specifying the August baseline.¹³⁶⁴

Pipeline damage forces rerouting

CNBC and UA.News reported that the East-West pipeline, which typically transports oil across Saudi Arabia to the Red Sea, was taken offline this month following a drone strike originating in Iraq. CryptoBriefing reported that Aramco stopped loading tankers at the Yanbu terminal after September 12 and abandoned Red Sea loadings entirely, shifting operations to Gulf coast terminals instead.¹³⁷

Brent crude briefly jumped to nearly $110 a barrel after the shutdown, before easing as markets assessed the scale of the disruption, CNBC and SEE.news reported. The U.S. military set up a shipping lane off Oman's coastline, while Saudi Arabia sent its exports instead through the Strait of Hormuz, a passage that had typically handled about 17 million barrels daily before wartime disruptions, CNBC and UA.News reported.¹⁴³

CryptoBriefing said that near September 21, Aramco filled seven supertankers with a combined 14 million barrels, and separately arranged the sale of roughly 60 million barrels for delivery in September and October via ship-to-ship exchanges at Oman's Sohar port. Roughly 20 percent of global oil supply normally transits the Strait of Hormuz, according to the same report.⁷

Aramco says disruptions are temporary

CNBC and UA.News reported that Saudi authorities have offered no official confirmation the pipeline is running again, though industry sources indicated it began pumping modest volumes earlier in the week and is increasing output, while SEE.news and UA.News characterized the restart as happening at lower-than-normal flow rates. Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser told Nikkei that in his experience, "temporary interruptions to oil infrastructure last usually for days, not weeks or months ... on every occasion."¹³⁴

Nasser also said Aramco was exploring alternative export routes and additional overseas storage. "Aramco continues to explore additional export routes and expand its storage capacity outside the Kingdom," he said, adding that "the company is capable of withstanding and managing severe disruptions, thanks to its advanced infrastructure."⁶

Kpler's Matt Smith said the rise in Gulf shipments reflected both the pipeline outage and growing confidence in using the strait despite the risks. "The ramp-up from the Mideast Gulf is a consequence of the pipeline outage, but it likely also signals a greater confidence in using the Strait of Hormuz given rising traffic," he said. Kpler estimated that Middle East crude exports stood at just under 80 percent of pre-conflict levels.¹

Wider war and diplomatic context

The export rebound comes amid a wider war between the United States and Iran that CNBC said has lasted about seven months, having begun in February. U.S. and Iranian officials each met privately with go-between negotiators on Monday, CNBC reported, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters in New York, "We talked about ideas and how to find solutions to fulfil Iran's conditions," adding, "Whenever the Qataris have a response, they know how to get it to us." Tehran's proposal is said to seek a four- to five-day U.S. timeline to release frozen funds and lift sanctions, and for nuclear talks to begin within seven days.¹

President Donald Trump said of the conflict, "We're going to win. It's going to go pretty quickly," and separately called an unspecified development "unacceptable," according to CNBC. The outlet also reported that Iran says a recent school attack involved two separate U.S. Tomahawk missiles, even as both Washington and Israel have declined to formally acknowledge involvement, and it noted that U.S. retail diesel prices sit close to an all-time high of $6.53 a gallon, with a possible export restriction that would keep about 1.2 million barrels a day within the country.¹