Brent Tops $108 After Satellite Damage to Saudi East-West Pipeline

Brent topped $108 a barrel on Monday, September 14, 2026, up 3.4% on the day, after satellite images released Sunday night showed a charred pumping station on Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline, which has been closed since Friday, September 11, following drone attacks.

The 1,200-kilometer pipeline, known as Petroline, connects Abqaiq, on the Gulf coast, with the port of Yanbu, on the Red Sea, and allows the world's largest crude exporter to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, closed since March by the war between the United States and Iran. Saudi Arabia has used it to divert about 4 million barrels per day, nearly 4% of global supply, according to The Guardian. Without the pipeline, Yanbu has inventories to sustain its exports for only five to seven days, according to three industry sources cited by the British newspaper. The impact reaches Latin America through refined products: diesel in the United States hit a record above $6 per gallon on Friday, September 11.

Estimates for the repair diverge, according to industry sources cited by The Guardian: one told Reuters that the work will take up to six weeks, while another said partial pumping could resume before the works are complete. Daniela Hathorn, a senior analyst at Capital.com, said in remarks reported by The Guardian that markets are starting the week in a defensive posture, with escalation in the Middle East and more restrictive central bank expectations weighing on risk appetite. For Mexico, more expensive imported diesel pressures freight and agribusiness costs, and a higher Brent widens the gap between the export value of the Mexican Mix and the reference price used for budgeting.

The market is waiting for two decisions: the Federal Reserve's rate decision on Wednesday, September 16, and the resumption of pumping on Petroline. Saudi Arabia told the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) that its crude production in August was the lowest since 1990, according to figures The Guardian attributes to Bloomberg.

This article was written with the assistance of artificial intelligence from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.