Saudi Arabia cuts oil capacity by 600,000 barrels/day; east–west pipeline throughput plunges

Saudi Press Agency (SPA) on April 9 quoted an official source from the country's Ministry of Energy reporting that attacks on energy facilities within Saudi Arabia have caused oil production capacityto decrease by about 600,000 barrels per day, the east–west oil pipeline's throughputhas decreased by about 700,000 barrels perday. The source did not specify the attacker, only mentioning that in recent weeks Saudi Arabia has intercepted multiple missiles and drones from Iran.

According to SPA, compounded by earlier attacks on some facilities, this round of attacks has caused varying degrees of disruption to the operations of key oil and gas, refining, petrochemical and power facilities in Riyadh, the Eastern Province, and Yanbu Industrial City.

Kpler analyst Matt Smith noted that a large volume of Saudi crude that cannot be transported via the Strait of Hormuz normally relies on the east–west oil pipeline for transshipment; this drop in output will further tighten global crude supply and is a clear negative for the market.