East-West still offline as Monday crude surges; Yanbu stocks measured in days
UPDATED · Mon. 8 a.m. EDT
Saudi Arabia’s East-West (Petroline) pipeline remained shut Monday after Thursday’s Iraq-origin drone hits near Riyadh and Medina, removing the kingdom’s main Hormuz-bypass export route as Brent jumped toward $108. Traders and Saudi oil buyers told Reuters that Yanbu Red Sea stocks may sustain exports only about five to seven days without a restart, putting up to roughly 4% of global supply at risk. Repair timelines still diverge in reporting — days to weeks — and Saudi officials have not announced a reopen date. NBC News said Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met U.S. Central Command Adm. Brad Cooper in Jeddah on Monday.
Oil pipelines in the Jubail desert, Saudi Arabia. File photograph; not from Thursday’s reported pump-station fires.
Suresh Babunair / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)
Center-left view
Reuters, NBC News, and Channel News Asia keep the Monday focus on supply math: Petroline still offline, Yanbu stocks measured in days, and up to ~4% of global oil at risk while Hormuz traffic stays thin — with Monday’s Brent surge as markets price the dual-chokepoint squeeze rather than a confirmed reopen timeline from Riyadh.
Sources: Reuters (via CNA) · NBC News · Al Jazeera
Center-right view
The National’s Monday oil wrap, Anadolu’s Iraq launch-platform reporting, and NBC’s Jeddah note on MBS meeting Adm. Cooper frame the outage as a live export-security crisis: the Hormuz bypass is dark, crude is printing near $108, and Gulf diplomacy over shipping lanes was postponed the same morning.
Sources: The National · Anadolu Agency · NBC News