Gulf oil exports, excluding Iran, exceeded the pre-war average of 18 million barrels per day last week. This information is based on data from maritime tracking company Kpler.
Crude Oil Exports in September
Crude oil exports in September reached pre-war levels, with at least 16.5 million barrels of oil leaving this region excluding Iran. Kpler reported that currently 40 percent of oil exports are bypassing the Strait of Hormuz, and most of the crude oil that passes through this strait is transferred at the coasts.
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New Routes and Transit Capacities
Most of the oil transported is through pipelines from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. This statistic includes flows through the Red Sea, a route that is increasingly used to bypass the blockade that Iran is attempting to impose on the Strait of Hormuz. About one-fifth of global oil supply passed through this strait before the war.
Iran still claims control over the Strait of Hormuz, and ships without its permission are at risk of attack, but more ships have successfully passed through, and alternative routes to bypass this waterway are being utilized.
Despite this increase, experts emphasized that the situation has not yet returned to normal, and Iran remains deprived of a significant share of its exports due to the blockade imposed by the U.S. on its ports.
Saudi Arabia has benefited from the activation of its East-West pipeline, which connects the country's main oil fields in the east to the Yanbu terminal on the Red Sea, thus allowing it to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. This pipeline was halted on September 11 due to attacks from Iraq but resumed operations on September 22.
The United Arab Emirates has also been able to bypass the Strait of Hormuz thanks to a pipeline that connects the Abu Dhabi fields to Fujairah, a terminal outside the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf of Oman.
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