New Delhi, Sept. 23 -- RIYADH - Saudi Arabia began pumping oil through its East-West pipeline again on Tuesday, and crude's response was immediate. Brent settled below $100 a barrel for the first time since early September, erasing a supply premium that traders had priced in for nine days after drone strikes shut the 1,200-kilometre conduit that carries Saudi crude from the kingdom's eastern oil fields to the Red Sea.

The pipeline had been offline since September 13, when attacks launched from Iraqi territory set fire to pumping stations along the route from Abqaiq to the Red Sea port of Yanbu. Saudi Arabia had been running the line at roughly 4 million barrels per day, about 4% of global supply, as its primary alternative to the Strait ...