Saudi Arabia has resumed oil exports through its East-West pipeline following completion of repairs, according to sources familiar with the operation.

The pipeline, which carries crude from fields in the kingdom's Eastern Province to the Red Sea coast, had been out of service while crews carried out repair work. Flows have now restarted, the sources said, restoring one of Saudi Aramco's key internal arteries for moving crude to export terminals on the west coast.

The 5 million bpd-capacity East-West line, also known as the Petroline, links production hubs around Abqaiq with the Yanbu terminal on the Red Sea. The route allows Riyadh to ship crude to European and Asian buyers without transiting the Strait of Hormuz, a flexibility the kingdom has emphasized in its export strategy.

The company did not immediately comment on the specifics of the restart, and Saudi Arabia has not published a detailed timeline of the repair work. Reuters first reported the resumption, citing sources who asked not to be identified.

For refiners in Europe and Asia, the restart restores a routing option that bypasses Hormuz at a time when tanker traffic through the strait remains a focal point for freight and insurance markets. West-coast loading from Yanbu shortens voyages to European ports compared with Ras Tanura and Ju'aymah on the Gulf coast.

The repair episode had drawn market attention because of the pipeline's role in Saudi export logistics. Any prolonged outage on the line concentrates loadings at Gulf-coast terminals and lengthens voyage times westward.

The sources did not specify the rate at which the line is currently pumping, and it remains unclear how quickly throughput will return to pre-repair levels. The Petroline rarely runs at its full 5 million bpd design capacity in normal operations.

Watch item: the pace of throughput recovery on the East-West line and the split of Saudi loadings between Red Sea and Gulf terminals in coming loading programmes.