[September 19, 2026] – According to OilPrice.com, Saudi Aramco has told all European term customers they will get no Saudi crude in October—at least two refiners were given a zero allocation—even as the kingdom works around damage to the East–West pipeline.
At least two European refiners were told their October allocations are zero, Bloomberg reported Friday. People familiar with the decision said it applies to all European term buyers.
That line had been moving 4–5 million bpd to Yanbu, then via Egypt’s SUMED system to Sidi Kerir on the Med, so European plants could take Saudi barrels without entering the Gulf; the attack cut that route and left Europe scrambling.
Aramco has instead sold about 60 million barrels from Ras Tanura for September–October loading, routing them through Hormuz with ship-to-ship transfers near Sohar, Oman—putting roughly 1–1.5 million bpd of Gulf exports back on the water.
Those barrels are going to China, South Korea, India and Japan, not Europe: westbound cargoes would still have to clear Hormuz and the Red Sea or take almost five weeks around Africa.
Aramco aims to restore about half of East–West capacity within days, but full rates may take six weeks; Poland’s Orlen is already replacing delayed Saudi September cargoes with North Sea, U.S. and Kazakh crude.
Read the full story on OilPrice.com.
