Saudi Arabia is increasingly routing crude through Yanbu on the Red Sea, exporting about 5 million barrels per day with an additional 700,000 to 900,000 barrels per day of refined products, while shipments to Saudi refineries total around 2 million barrels per day of the pipeline’s seven million-barrel-per-day capacity.

The Yanbu export route serves as a deliberate bypass to reduce reliance on the Strait of Hormuz and mitigate disruptions from ongoing Middle East hostilities.

Analysts credit the Hormuz bypass with helping to prevent crisis-level spikes in oil prices during regional tensions.

The East-West pipeline, over 1,000 kilometers long, was built as a worst-case contingency dating back to historic tensions from the Iran-Iraq era.

Disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz since early March have affected about 20 million barrels a day and pushed shipping costs higher, intensifying the case for alternative routes.

Saudi Arabia activated its contingency plan within hours of the initial strikes on Iran, ramping up east-west shipments to compensate for Hormuz disruption.

The pipeline provides a critical bypass around Hormuz as regional conflict disrupts traffic, prompting Gulf producers to diversify export routes.

While the bypass reduces some supply losses from Hormuz closure, it does not fully offset the impact of Hormuz shutdown, though it has helped limit extreme price spikes.

The arrangement reinforces Saudi Arabia’s role as a reliable oil supplier of last resort and highlights the strategic value of diversified export routes amid regional tensions.

Yanbu has emerged as one of the Gulf’s major export outlets since late February, following Hormuz disruptions triggered by regional actions.

Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline is operating at its full capacity of about 7 million barrels per day, facilitating the Hormuz bypass.

Yanbu connects to eastern Saudi oil fields via a 1,200-kilometer pipeline, enabling shipments that bypass the Strait of Hormuz.