The pipeline, which was knocked out by attacks earlier this month, is now being tested and could resume flows within days.

The move comes after a drone attack disrupted the kingdom’s key East-West oil pipeline amid escalating regional tensions.

Baghdad launches investigation, closes border after confirming strike came from Iraqi territory.

With its Red Sea bypass route disrupted by attacks from Yemen and Iraq, the world’s oil kingpin is returning to the waterway it was trying to avoid in the first place.

Saudi Arabia faces the biggest threat to its oil production since 1932 as Houthis launch attacks near the Red Sea's Bab el-Mandeb Strait, an expert says.

Saudi Aramco loaded about 14 million barrels of crude oil on seven supertankers inside the Mideast Gulf on Sunday, data from TankerTrackers.com ​showed, as the kingdom increased loadings from Gulf export terminals after an attack disrupted ​shipments via its east-west pipeline to the Red Sea.

The 1,200km (745-mile) pipeline has been temporarily closed, affecting up to 5 percent of global oil supply.

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday rejected an Iraqi claim that it had purchased 25 oil tankers, calling the information false. Iraq had linked the alleged purchases to a sharp rise in the cost of shipping its crude.