West Texas and Brent crude prices declined after Saudi Arabia rushed to restore the East-West Pipeline via a bypass route. West Texas stood at 102.43 dollars per barrel, down 3.40 dollars, and Brent stood at 105.83 dollars per barrel, down 2.92 dollars. The oil price situation analysis unit at Thai Oil Public Company Limited stated that Saudi Arabia is building a bypass pipeline around the damaged section so that the East-West Pipeline can resume partial operations. A report citing Bloomberg data said Saudi Aramco aims to restore throughput through the pipeline to about half within a few days and targets a full return to operations in roughly six weeks. The East-West Pipeline is a route that transports oil from eastern Saudi Arabia to the Red Sea coast without passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Its partial return to service therefore helps ease concerns that Saudi oil volumes would be lost from the market for a long time. However, shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remains at a low level, with only 4 vessels detected passing through, compared with a 10-day average of 18. Meanwhile, Russia increased seaborne oil exports in the four weeks ending September 13 to an average of 3.54 million barrels per day, the largest weekly increase since May, adding supply to the market at a time when the Middle East is facing transport problems.
Thai Oil Public Company LimitedAramco aims to restore pipeline throughput to about half within days and full operations in six weeks, easing supply-loss concerns
