Satellite imagery has shown a sharp rise in the number of oil tankers stationed at Saudi Arabia’s Gulf export terminals, even as traffic through the Strait of Hormuz continued to decline.
Bloomberg reported that supertankers capable of carrying about 14 million barrels of crude were spotted at Saudi terminals over the weekend. Data from the European Union’s Sentinel-2 satellite showed it was the highest number of tankers recorded at the facilities since at least June.
Despite the increase in vessels at Saudi ports, the overall movement of commodity ships through the Strait of Hormuz remained weak.
Only 12 commodity vessels passed through the strategic waterway over the weekend, compared with 35 the previous week. On Thursday, just four tankers crossed the strait, against a 10-day average of 16, according to Kpler data cited by Reuters.
Saudi Arabia has also continued moving a significant volume of crude through Hormuz. JPMorgan said in a Friday note that the kingdom transported about 2.9 million barrels of crude per day through the strait over the previous six days.
The bank described Saudi Arabia’s shift in export routes as “the most notable pivot” among Gulf producers.
The disruption to Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure has further complicated the kingdom’s efforts to maintain exports.
On September 11, drone attacks launched from Iraq disrupted the East-West pipeline, also known as Petroline. The 1,200-kilometre pipeline normally transports up to seven million barrels of crude daily from oil fields in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province to the Yanbu terminal on the Red Sea.
The attack knocked between four million and five million barrels per day of the pipeline’s capacity offline. Saudi crude loadings subsequently fell from about 7.5 million barrels per day in January and February to roughly 2.1 million barrels per day by mid-September, representing a decline of more than 70 per cent.
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on September 15 that the pipeline was expected to resume operations within days. However, an industry analyst told Al-Monitor that several pumping stations had been destroyed, meaning complete restoration could take six weeks or longer.
Saudi Arabia also faced renewed security concerns after Yemen’s Houthi movement claimed responsibility for overnight cruise missile, ballistic missile and drone attacks targeting Riyadh and Aramco facilities at Yanbu between September 18 and 19.
Saudi authorities confirmed that the Houthis had targeted civilian infrastructure at the port, where the East-West pipeline terminates.
The missile fired towards Riyadh was intercepted, while Saudi authorities reported no casualties or damage from either incident. However, the attack has raised fresh concerns over the security of Yanbu, which has become Saudi Arabia’s main export outlet since the disruption around Hormuz.
Meanwhile, Saudi Aramco has been using alternative methods to move crude from its Ras Tanura terminal on the Persian Gulf.
The company transports crude in smaller vessels to the Gulf of Oman, where the oil is transferred to larger tankers. The arrangement is being used to transport roughly 60 million barrels loaded at Ras Tanura for delivery in September and October, with most of the crude destined for refiners in China and South Korea.
Gulf oil exports have also recovered to an average of between one million and 1.5 million barrels per day, broadly matching August levels.
Despite the ongoing disruptions around key export routes, crude prices fell on Monday.
Brent crude was trading at $100.90 per barrel at 9:33 a.m. ET, down 2.82 per cent, while West Texas Intermediate fell 3.11 per cent to $97.18 per barrel.
