Saudi Arabia's East-West crude pipeline, known as Petroline, has resumed operation, but throughput remains at roughly 40% of levels recorded before Houthi attacks forced the line's shutdown, according to a report by The Print.

The 1,200-kilometre Petroline system carries crude from fields in the Eastern Province — the heart of Saudi Arabia's oil production, anchored by the Ghawar and Khurais complexes — to the Red Sea coast at Yanbu, where export terminals load cargoes for Suez-bound and Asian-bound tankers. The pipeline gives Aramco an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf shipping lanes, a redundancy that has taken on renewed value since Houthi forces began targeting Red Sea shipping.

The report does not specify the restart date or the current absolute throughput in barrels per day. Under normal conditions, Petroline has a nameplate capacity near 5 million bpd, which would place current flows in the vicinity of 2 million bpd if the 40% figure is measured against full capacity. The Print's wording ties the 40% level to pre-attack flows rather than nameplate capacity, leaving the exact operational rate unconfirmed.

The original attack that halted the line has been attributed to Houthi forces, whose campaign against commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb Strait has rerouted a substantial share of tanker traffic since late 2023. The strike on the pipeline itself extended that threat from the water to Saudi energy infrastructure onshore.

Why the line matters

Petroline is one of two main routes for moving Saudi crude to western export outlets. Tankers loading at Yanbu bypass Hormuz entirely, a routing option Gulf producers have leaned on during periods of regional tension. Saudi Arabia expanded the system's role in 2019 after the Abqaiq-Khurais processing facility attack knocked out roughly 5.7 million bpd of production, when Aramco routed additional volumes through the pipeline to maintain West-bound shipments.

A pipeline running at 40% of prior throughput constrains that flexibility. Exporters and refiners counting on Yanbu loadings may see cargo scheduling shifts toward Gulf Coast terminals, adding tanker transit days through Hormuz for destinations west of Suez.

What remains unclear

The report does not say what physical damage, if any, the attack inflicted on pumping stations along the route, or what repair timeline Aramco has laid out for restoring full throughput. Saudi Arabia has historically declined to publish granular operational data on Petroline flows, and official Aramco statements on the incident have not detailed the recovery schedule.

Analysts tracking Middle East crude flows will want to distinguish between damage-related restrictions and deliberate flow management. Attribution for any margin or price impact belongs with those analysts; no price commentary appears in the source report itself.

Watch items

The number to watch is a step-up in Petroline throughput toward pre-attack levels, which would signal completed repairs at the affected stations. Second is any formal Aramco statement quantifying the outage or the recovery timeline. Third is the trajectory of Houthi activity in the Red Sea corridor, which governs both the risk premium on regional shipping and the strategic case for running the East-West line at high rates.