'4% of global supply at risk': Saudi warns after Houthi attack shuts oil pipeline

BREAKING: Saudi Arabia warns 4% of global oil supply is at risk after Houthi drone attacks shut a key east-west pipeline, with only a few days of export stocks remaining.

Four percent of the world's oil supply is at risk, and the clock on it is measured in days.

Saudi Arabia says Houthi drone attacks have forced it to shut the east-west pipeline, the artery that carries crude across the country to Red Sea terminals so tankers can avoid the Strait of Hormuz. Take that pipe offline and the pressure lands on facilities like this one, huge processing plants pushing crude towards export ports that suddenly have nothing new arriving.

And the warning from Riyadh is blunt, only a few days of export stocks remaining. That's not a buffer, that's a countdown. If repairs don't come fast, buyers from Rotterdam to Tokyo start fighting over whatever is already on the water, and every insurer with a tanker near Yemen reprices by morning.

The world runs on margins, and Saudi Arabia just told everyone its margin is a few days wide.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.