Saudi Arabia has resumed crude oil and refined-product loadings from the Red Sea port of Yanbu after restarting its East-West Pipeline, restoring an important export route that had been disrupted by a drone attack earlier this month, Reuters reported.

Saudi Aramco has notified customers of its October loading schedule from Yanbu, while tanker-tracking data showed that crude loadings had already resumed. European Space Agency (ESA) satellite imagery captured on September 27 indicated that nearly 10 million barrels (mmbbl) of crude were being loaded at Yanbu and the nearby Al Muajjiz terminal, according to vessel-tracking firm TankerTrackers.

The East-West Pipeline was shut on September 11 following drone attacks that Saudi Arabia attributed to Iraqi militias. Operations resumed on September 22, allowing Saudi Arabia to begin rebuilding crude flows toward its Red Sea export terminals.

Current crude throughput through the pipeline is estimated at around 2 million barrels per day (mmbbl/d) by industry sources and approximately 2.65 mmbbl/d by Kpler, according to Reuters. Kpler expects throughput to increase to between 3 mmbbl/d and 4 million b/d in the coming days.

However, a full recovery to the approximately 5.5 mmbbl/d level recorded before the attack could take another month, Kpler said. The pipeline has a maximum capacity of around 7 mmbbl/d.

Crude inventories at Yanbu also increased by around 1 mmbbl on September 22, marking the first inventory build at the terminal since the attack, according to Kpler.

The restart comes as Saudi Arabia works to restore its broader export flows following disruptions to regional shipping routes. Saudi crude exports are estimated to have risen to around 5.4 mmbbl/d in September from 2.446 mmbbl/d in August, while regional crude exports reached 16.328 mmbbl/d, according to Kpler data cited by Reuters.