Oil’s next test: Saudi Arabia races to restore a key safety valve for prices

The global oil market is running out of safety nets. Prices are unlikely to fall below $100 per barrel anytime soon, analysts said, with traders increasingly pricing in a significant loss of regional supply as Saudi Arabia scrambles to restore a crucial pipeline . Saudi Arabia's closure of the East-West pipeline, a highly strategic network that transports crude oil from Abqaiq on the kingdom's eastern Gulf coast to the port of Yanbu on the Red Sea, has put 4 million barrels per day at risk and driven a sharp spike in crude prices . The development is more bad news for consumers — and comes against a backdrop of renewed hostilities between the U.S.