Saudi Arabia is drawing on stored oil reserves to sustain exports after drone attacks last Thursday shut its East-West pipeline, a 1,200-kilometre artery running from eastern oil fields to the Red Sea port of Yanbu. Traders and buyers estimate that roughly 4 million barrels per day — around 4% of global supply — could be at risk if the shutdown is prolonged, with stored supplies at Yanbu expected to last only five to seven days. Brent crude rose approximately 3% on Monday as the disruption compounds broader instability in the region, with Yemen's Houthi forces now controlling Perim Island and the Bab el-Mandeb strait (the narrow passage linking the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden), complicating alternative shipping routes to both Europe and Asia.