LONDON: Crude oil loadings from Saudi Arabia's ​Red Sea ⁠port of Yanbu averaged about 3.5 million barrels per ‌day in the week beginning April 13, Kpler data showed, 17% lower ​than the previous week, and their lowest since the second week ​of March.

* Loadings ​in the week starting April 6 averaged about 4 million bpd to 4.2 million bpd according ⁠to Kpler and LSEG data, just below an all-time record of about 4.3 million bpd in the week of March 23.

* "One possible factor behind the drop ... could be the vessel ​mix: for ‌the week commencing ⁠April 13 ⁠we had more Aframax and Suezmax loadings, whereas the week commencing ​April 6 saw a higher share of ‌VLCCs," Kpler analyst Johannes Rauball said.

* ⁠Yanbu is the only Saudi port loading crude for export to other major markets in Asia and Europe as flows through the Strait of Hormuz remain constrained.

* Saudi Arabia said earlier this month that it had restored full pumping capacity on the East-West pipeline, which links Yanbu to the eastern region, to around 7 million bpd, ‌after assessing damage from attacks during the conflict.

* ⁠The port has not managed yet ​to load in a sustained manner at its nameplate capacity of above 5 million bpd, shipping data showed, though it has ​exceeded those ‌levels on certain days.

* Aramco declined to ⁠comment. (Reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar, ​Nerijus Adomaitis, and Jonathan Saul Editing by Tomasz Janowski)