Saudi Arabia's Yanbu crude exports surged to around 4.6 million barrels per day last week, near capacity, as the kingdom reroutes shipments from the Strait of Hormuz due to the US-Israeli war with Iran, Kpler and LSEG data shows.
Yanbu has maximum capacity to export about five million bpd and is currently the only Saudi port capable of shipping crude to other regions.
Exports in the week beginning March 16 were near four million bpd, according to shipping data.
Asia accounts for over 80 per cent of the Yanbu exports, according to Kpler.
Saudi Aramco, the world's biggest oil exporter, has been pumping crude along its East-West pipeline to Yanbu to keep supplies flowing and offset the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to the conflict.
Aramco can pump up to seven million bpd through the pipeline, around five million bpd of which could be available for export, with the rest supplying local refineries, the company said on March 10.
(Reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar and Jonathan Saul, editing by Alex Lawler and Kirsten Donovan)
