Saudi Arabia has restored oil flows through its East-West Pipeline to 5.8 million barrels per day (mmbbl/d), Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said, underscoring the kingdom’s progress in rebuilding an alternative export route amid continued disruption to oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, according to Reuters.

The minister said the pipeline, which transports crude from Saudi Arabia’s eastern production areas to the Red Sea export hub of Yanbu, was operating without interruption as of the morning of October 6.

The latest flow level represents more than 80% of the pipeline’s expanded 7 mmbbl/d capacity and comes less than a month after drone attacks forced Saudi Arabia to shut the system and halt crude loadings at Yanbu temporarily.

The East-West Pipeline restarted on September 22 at a low rate after the attacks, as reported by Reuters.

The pipeline was subsequently ramped up to nearly 6 mmbbl/d by early October, with about 4.5 mmbbl/d available for exports after accounting for crude supplied to refineries on Saudi Arabia’s western coast, according to industry sources cited by Reuters.

The recovery is particularly significant because the East-West Pipeline provides Saudi Arabia with an overland route to the Red Sea that can bypass the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important oil transit chokepoints.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Saudi Arabia and the UAE are the only Gulf countries with operational crude oil pipelines capable of bypassing the Strait. EIA data show that Saudi Aramco’s East-West system originally had a design capacity of 5 mmbbl/d, which was expanded to 7 mmbbl/d in 2019.