Aramco starts planning a bigger East-West oil pipeline

Aramco has begun preliminary engineering for an expansion of its East-West pipeline, Chief Executive Amin Nasser said. The line carries crude across Saudi Arabia from the Gulf coast to export facilities on the Red Sea, giving the company a way to ship oil without relying solely on its eastern outlets. That makes it less about producing more oil immediately than about having more choices over how to move barrels when routes are constrained or demand shifts. The work is still at the engineering stage, so Aramco has not announced a final investment decision, timetable, or completed new capacity.