At least two European refining customers have been told they will receive no Saudi Aramco crude oil in October 2026 following an attack on Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline, Bloomberg News reported citing people familiar with the decision. The reported cuts affect long-term contracts through which customers normally receive monthly supplies.
The notifications follow earlier disruptions to European shipments. On September 15, Reuters reported, citing trading and shipping sources, that some September-loading cargoes had been canceled and oil loading at the Red Sea port of Yanbu had been suspended.
What is Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline?
The East-West pipeline, also known as Petroline, carries crude across Saudi Arabia from Abqaiq, an oil-processing hub in the east, to Yanbu on the Red Sea coast. Its strategic purpose is to provide an overland export route that avoids the Strait of Hormuz.
Stretching approximately 1,200 kilometers, or 746 miles, the pipeline was built in the 1980s. This happened amid fears that the Iran-Iraq War would disrupt shipping through Hormuz. At Yanbu, tankers can load crude oil heading north toward Europe through the Suez Canal, rather than leaving Saudi Arabia through its Persian Gulf terminals
The system consists of two crude pipelines. In its February 2026 assessment, the International Energy Agency said Aramco had reported increasing their combined capacity to 7 million barrels a day. They noted however that sustained flows at that level had not been tested. Capacity is therefore not the same as the volume actually exported.
The port of Sidi Kerir
European refiners commonly receive crude oil from Saudi Arabia through Egypt’s Mediterranean port of Sidi Kerir. The pipeline connects the port to the Red Sea. It enables oil arriving from Saudi Arabia to cross Egypt and continue into the Mediterranean for delivery to European markets.
This route helps move crude oil between the Red Sea and Mediterranean without requiring fully laden tankers to make the entire passage through the Suez Canal. Disruption to Saudi flows reaching the Red Sea therefore affects a broader transport chain that serves European buyers.
The pipeline disruption has heightened concern among some Aramco customers and accelerated efforts to secure other cargoes. Any prolonged reduction in Saudi exports could increase competition among European refiners for crude offered by North Sea producers and suppliers in other regions.
Orlen seeks replacement barrels
Poland’s Orlen was already looking for alternatives before the October allocation report. On September 15 the company had purchased North Sea crude oil to replace disrupted Saudi Arabian imports. It was seeking cargoes from other producing regions.
Orlen has issued more than 10 tenders since the previous Friday in an effort to obtain alternative crude supplies. The company operates refineries in Poland, Lithuania and the Czech Republic. This makes its purchasing response relevant to fuel supply across several European Union markets.
Orlen declined to discuss individual commercial transactions. A spokesperson said feedstock deliveries to its refineries were continuing without disruption. He also added that the company was adjusting its supply portfolio to maintain operations.
Europe faces greater competition for crude oil
European members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development imported about 577,000 barrels of Saudi crude a day in June, according to monthly data from the International Energy Agency. The figure indicates the scale of the trade exposed to a prolonged interruption, although the reported October allocations may not affect every buyer in the same way.
In the immediate term, refiners can seek substitute grades and draw on diversified supply arrangements. A longer outage, however, could intensify competition for available cargoes and raise procurement pressure across the European refining sector.
The next key developments will be whether Aramco confirms the allocation changes, whether the East-West pipeline restarts and how successfully European refiners replace missing Saudi barrels.
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