Oil buyers and Saudi traders warned that the kingdom's export inventories could run out if operations on the main pipeline to the Red Sea are not resumed within days, saying that a prolonged outage could remove up to four percent of global oil supplies from the market.
Additional pressure on the oil market
Any further decline in Saudi flows would exacerbate the global supply shortfall, which has pushed fuel prices worldwide to record highs and contributed to rising inflation rates around the world.
Export inventories tied to pipeline restart
The warning comes as the outage on Saudi Arabia's main pipeline to the Red Sea continues. Buyers and traders said that resuming operations within days is necessary to avoid depleting inventories earmarked for export.
