Persian Gulf Producers Race to Restart: Saudi East-West Pipeline Back at 7 Million BPD, Manifa Full as ADNOC Holds 440,000 BPD Spare Capacity

Persian Gulf producers are bringing damaged infrastructure back online faster than analysts modelled at the start of the conflict, with Saudi Aramco's East-West Pipeline restored to its full 7 million barrels per day capacity and the Manifa offshore field returned to its 300,000 bpd nameplate. Abu Dhabi National Oil Company has confirmed that the Habshan-Fujairah Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline (ADCOP) is operating at 71% utilization, leaving roughly 440,000 bpd of spare capacity available to absorb additional Hormuz-displaced volumes immediately. The recovery sets the operational baseline for what production can flow even if the Strait of Hormuz remains throttled through Q2.

Saudi Aramco Restores Critical Hormuz-Bypass Capacity

Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Energy confirmed on April 12 that the East-West Pipeline (Petroline) was back to pumping approximately 7 million bpd, after Iranian drone strikes on a pumping station had reduced throughput by 700,000 bpd as of April 9. The 1,201-kilometer line runs from the Abqaiq processing complex in the Eastern Province to Yanbu on the Red Sea, providing the kingdom's primary route for exporting crude that bypasses Hormuz entirely. Combined with the Manifa restart and ongoing repairs at the Khurais inland field (1.2 million bpd nameplate, currently rebuilding from a 300,000 bpd loss), Saudi Aramco has demonstrated the operational resilience the Ministry described as "high" in its public statement.

The Wall Street Journal reported that ADNOC CEO Sultan Al Jaber told peers the strait was "still not open" in functional terms, even after the April 8 ceasefire, because Iran continues to restrict and condition tanker traffic. That framing matters for the bypass-route mathematics: Iran's nominal April 22 reopening declaration has not translated into pre-war flow rates, leaving the East-West Pipeline and ADCOP as the actual export corridors of consequence.

What's Different from Past Hormuz Episodes

The April 2026 picture is materially different from the 2019 Abqaiq drone attack, when a single 24-hour event knocked out 5.7 million bpd and triggered a 14% Brent spike. This time, the disruption is not one event but a structural blockade: shipments through Hormuz averaged just 3.8 million bpd in early April versus more than 20 million bpd in February before the war, per IEA's April Oil Market Report. Bypass routes have absorbed roughly 7.2 million bpd, up from less than 4 million bpd before the conflict.

The IEA's analysis frames the gap clearly. Bypass infrastructure was sized for short-duration disruptions, not the 60-plus days of restricted Hormuz flow the market is now seven weeks into. The result: 230 loaded tankers were waiting inside the Persian Gulf as of mid-April, unable to transit safely. Basra Oil Company's restart targeting 3.4 million bpd within one week of the ceasefire represents the upper bound of what can move quickly; Iraq's actual lifting capacity through the only operational alternative, the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline (ITP) to Ceyhan, remains far below that target.

Company-Level Restart Status

• Saudi Aramco: East-West Pipeline at 7 million bpd nameplate. Manifa at 300,000 bpd full. Khurais repairs ongoing, target restoration of 300,000 bpd lost capacity within weeks. Abqaiq processing complex undamaged in current conflict.
• ADNOC: ADCOP at 71% utilization with 440,000 bpd spare. ADNOC CEO Sultan Al Jaber has indicated capacity could temporarily flex to 1.8 million bpd if required, versus the 1.5 million bpd nameplate.
• Basra Oil Company (Iraq): Targeting 3.4 million bpd recovery within one week of ceasefire stabilization. Rumaila field collapsed to 30% capacity at peak disruption.
• QatarEnergy: Ras Laffan force majeure extended to mid-June 2026 covering 17% of Qatar LNG capacity, with full restoration potentially taking up to five years per recent Qatar disclosures.
• BP, TotalEnergies, Equinor: All three reported Q1 2026 trading windfalls from Hormuz-driven crude and gas volatility, but operational exposure to the strait remains limited compared with regional national oil companies.

What This Means for Brent and Margins

Brent crude settled at $105.33 per barrel on Friday's ICE close, up roughly 7% on the week as the bypass-route ceiling remained the binding constraint on global exports. WTI settled at $94.40 per barrel on Friday's CME close. The 7.2 million bpd of bypass capacity now operating represents roughly 36% of the 20 million bpd that Hormuz carried before the conflict. The gap of approximately 12.8 million bpd between pre-war and current effective Persian Gulf throughput is what the global market is repricing day by day.

For producers using the bypass routes, the implied netback advantage is meaningful. At current Brent settlement against Saudi Light official selling prices, every additional 100,000 bpd of pipeline capacity utilization translates to roughly $10 million per day of incremental gross revenue at the wellhead, before transportation tariff and royalty deductions. ADNOC's 440,000 bpd of spare ADCOP capacity, if fully utilized, equals approximately $44 million per day of additional Persian Gulf-origin crude that can reach buyers without traversing Hormuz.

What to Watch Next

Three milestones determine whether the operational restart trajectory holds. First, completion of Khurais field repairs to recover the 300,000 bpd loss, expected within weeks per Saudi Ministry of Energy guidance. Second, the outcome of US-Iran direct talks scheduled for Pakistan this weekend, which determine whether the April 8 ceasefire transitions from "announced" to "functional" for tanker traffic. Third, ADNOC's decision on whether to flex ADCOP to its 1.8 million bpd surge capacity, which would signal the kingdom's read of how prolonged the Hormuz throttle will last.

Sources and methodology

• Al Jazeera: Saudi Arabia says key oil pipeline back to full capacity after attacks, April 12, 2026
• IEA Oil Market Report, April 2026
• CNBC: Oil exporters scramble for routes beyond Hormuz, April 23, 2026
• The National: Saudi Arabia restores East-West pipeline capacity, April 12, 2026

Oil Authority synthesis: cross-referenced bypass capacity figures from IEA against Saudi Aramco operational disclosures and ADNOC public statements; computed implied bypass-versus-pre-war Persian Gulf throughput gap; tracked company-level restart status across five operators not assembled in a single source.