Five sources said Saudi Arabia is weighing an expansion of its east–west
pipeline to the Red Sea west coast to enable Saudi and neighboring crude
shipments without transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The pipeline, built in the
early 1980s, can deliver up to 7.0 mln bpd to Yanbu; Aramco told investors in
May roughly 2.0 mln bpd supplies west‑coast refineries and about 5.0 mln bpd is
for export. Sources said Riyadh has held preliminary talks with some neighbours
on boosting capacity by about 1.0–2.0 mln bpd, and that plans may include a
smaller products line. It is unclear whether expansion would be an upgrade or a
newbuild. One source said the project would take several years, cost billions of
dollars and could require adjustments to Saudi crude pricing mechanisms.
