Saudi Aramco, the national petroleum and natural gas company of Saudi Arabia, is set to halt contracted crude deliveries to European customers in October after attacks shut a key pipeline to the Red Sea, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The report said the Saudi state oil producer, also one of the largest companies in the world by revenue and market capitalization, had told at least two European refiners that they would not receive scheduled October cargoes.
The decision applies to all of Aramco's European buyers, it said.
Aramco has declined to comment its decision so far.
European refiners typically use long-term contracts with Aramco to secure predictable monthly supplies. The interruption is likely to push them into the spot market for more expensive alternative cargoes.
Saudi Arabia's Energy Ministry said on Sept 11 that the Riyadh and Medina sections of the East-West pipeline had come under repeated attack the previous day, prompting a precautionary shutdown.
The pipeline has not returned to normal operations.
The more than 1,200-km pipeline carries crude from oil-producing areas in Saudi Arabia's east to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, providing an export route that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz. It has a peak capacity of 7 million barrels per day, including up to 5 million barrels available for export.
Saudi oil company set to halt October crude deliveries to Europe
Saudi oil company set to halt October crude deliveries to Europe
Residents in Yemen's capital Sanaa held a mass funeral on Wednesday for 43 victims -- mostly women and children -- who were killed after airstrikes hit a residential neighborhood on Saturday, with huge crowds of mourners joining the funeral procession and bemoaning the attacks on innocent civilians.
The strikes hit homes in the Ash Sharyah village of the Bani Hashish district, east of Sanaa, and marked the latest deadly escalation of hostilities in war-torn Yemen which began in mid-July.
The Houthi group that controls Sanaa accused Saudi Arabia of carrying out the attacks as the Saudis continue to back the Yemeni government.
Wednesday's funeral procession began in central Sanaa before moving toward the Bani Hashish district. Alongside the bereaved families, many local residents joined the march, accompanying the coffins to show their support and solidarity in a ceremony that brought the community together in shared grief.
Tawfiq Ibrahim, a relative of the victims, was among those who strongly condemned the attacks.
"We have come here today, on this tragic day, to mourn our sons, women and children who were killed in what we describe as brutal Saudi aggression. The airstrikes targeted civilians, including women and children," he said.
"We join the families of the victims in mourning those killed in the Saudi aggression against the people of Yemen and the innocent residents of Bani Hashish," said Mohammed Khamis, another mourner. Many locals are still trying to process the tragedy, with a resident named Radwan questioning why these innocent people had been targeted in their homes.
"We are here to mourn civilians from Ash Sharyah village in Bani Hashish district, most of whom were killed in Saudi airstrikes. Today, we offer our condolences to their families and relatives over this great tragedy. They were civilians who were killed when their homes were struck in broad daylight. They had done nothing wrong," he said.
Following a four-year truce, Yemen has seen intensified ground fighting and airstrikes in recent months, alongside Houthi missile and drone attacks on Saudi soil.
According to figures released by the Houthi-run Health Ministry on Tuesday, a total of 1,112 people have now been killed or injured in attacks on Yemen since July.
Mourners gather as mass funeral procession held in Yemen's Sanaa following airstrikes
