Saudi Arabia is looking to expand its pipeline crude export capacity to as much as 10 million barrels per day by repurposing a domestic gas pipeline and investing in its existing East-West network, Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said on Monday.
Saudi Arabia could add up to 1.2 million barrels per day of oil export capacity within seven to eight weeks by temporarily converting a gas pipeline for crude shipments.
Up to 3 million bpd could be added in total with further investment, Abdulaziz said at the World Petroleum Congress in Riyadh.
The minister said he had told Saudi Aramco it could use the pipeline for oil transport until May, after which it would need to be cleaned and returned to gas service ahead of the summer season.
He said that upgrades to pumping stations on Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline and other infrastructure projects could help lift the kingdom's capacity to divert shipments from its main maritime Gulf and Red Sea routes to around 10 million bpd over the next two to three years.
(Reuters)