East-West pipeline upgrade lets Saudi oil bypass Hormuz risk

Saudi Arabia plans to raise the East-West pipeline to 10 million barrels a day, Aramco chief Amin Nasser said, as the war keeps oil supplies tight.

Nasser spoke in an interview with Al Arabiya Business, shortly after the congress opened. He said Aramco is also running engineering studies for more export routes.

The company wants to double its oil storage outside the kingdom as well, especially in Asia, to give buyers more flexibility.

Why the East-West pipeline matters

The East-West pipeline carries crude across Saudi Arabia, so tankers can skip the Strait of Hormuz. Prince Abdulaziz called it a key example of infrastructure that offers alternative routes to market. Nasser said prices could have climbed far higher without such alternative export infrastructure.

Oil markets entered the crisis with inventories already below the level they needed, he added. Since the crisis began, the world has lost about 3 billion barrels of supply.

Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman gave a timeline at the WPC Energy Congress in Riyadh. The expansion should take two to three years, he said.

He told the gathering that advance planning let the kingdom handle the crisis. “The word fear in the Saudi dictionary does not exist,” he said.

Resilience beyond the East-West pipeline

The prince argued that resilience means more than spare production, pipelines and power plants. It also covers repairs, rerouting, alternatives and the ability to keep meeting market needs under pressure.

Nasser said Aramco is studying more options for crude exports with the energy ministry. Those studies aim to make supply more resilient and to diversify routes.

He did not wait for the crisis to end before starting the work, according to his remarks. Expanding infrastructure and adding transport options should help Aramco keep supplies flowing during disruptions.

Demand outlook and gas plans

Nasser expects demand to rise by 3 million barrels a day after the crisis ends. He links that jump to returning consumption, plus a rush to rebuild stocks that ran down during the disruption.

OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais expects demand growth of 1.7 million barrels a day in 2027, once some postponed buying comes back.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said oil flows across the Strait of Hormuz had bounced back to 80% to 90% of their prewar volume. Refined products lagged far behind, at 25% to 35%. Wright also condemned attacks on the kingdom and said the US stands with Gulf partners.

Aramco is also growing its gas business. Nasser said the company aims to raise gas output by 80% between 2021 and 2030, and the second phase of the Jafurah project stays on schedule for 2027.

Saudi Arabia is hosting the congress for the first time since the event began over 90 years ago.

He added that the kingdom spent decades building up capacity, storage, export options, technology and local supply chains. For now, the East-West pipeline gives Riyadh a way around the strait, and the expansion shows how far Saudi planners expect the disruption to last.