OIL PIPELINEs GEOPOLITICS: Saudi Arabia has announced plans today to expand its key East-West pipeline (bypassing the Strait of Hormuz), which has a nominal capacity of 7m b/d (although currently is running probably at around 6m b/d after an attack destroyed a pumping station in September).

In the next 7-8 weeks, Saudi Aramco would be able to boost capacity by 1.2m b/d using an existing natural gas pipe, making changes to ship crude. Riyadh didn't disclose further details, other than the line would need to revert to nat gas by May as the kingdom needs it to feed power stations during the summer months.

[My hypothesis is this could be the old 48-inches, ~1,500-km long IPSA (Iraqi Pipeline in Saudi Arabia) built in the 1980s which runs largely parallel to the East-West pipeline from pumping station #3 all the way to near Yanbu. The pipeline was seized by the Saudis after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in Aug 1990 and later it was repurposed for use in the country's Master Gas System]

More long-term, Saudi officials said they plan to boost shipping capacity of the East-West pipeline to ~10m b/d in the next 2-3 years, mostly improving pumping capacity (rather than building another pipe).

For more on the East-West pipeline, I wrote this @Opinion column early on the conflict: https://t.co/4xlOFVnJxf