Finance15 September, 20263 min read
Saudi Arabia Closes East-West Oil Pipeline After Drones Attack Riyadh And Medina
Drone strikes launched from Iraq forced Saudi Arabia to shut the East-West pipeline. The 1,200-km line carries about 4–5 million barrels per day.
61 outlets told this the same way.
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Pipeline closure after drones
Saudi Arabia temporarily closed its East-West oil pipeline after drones attacked the line in the Riyadh and Medina areas, with the Ministry of Energy describing the shutdown as a “precaution” and saying specialized teams began steps to “secure the pipeline and assess its safety.” The pipeline is described as a 1,200km (746-mile) conduit stretching across the Arabian Peninsula from Saudi’s Abqaiq oilfield in the east to the Yanbu port on the Red Sea in the west, and Al Jazeera said the closure halted the flow of Saudi oil exports. Al Jazeera reported that the drones were launched from Iraq and that equipment used to operate the pipeline was also hit, while 20Minutos said Saudi Arabia announced last Friday it had closed the East-West pipeline as a precaution after multiple drone attacks launched from Iraq.
Reuters, via 95 KQDS, said oil prices rose on Tuesday as concerns persisted after attacks left the kingdom’s East-West pipeline offline, and it tied the outage to the pipeline’s role in allowing exports to bypass the blockaded Strait of Hormuz. In the same Reuters report, Tim Waterer of KCM Trade said, “Oil traders are treating every fresh attack or infrastructure hit as incremental supply risk,” as the market weighed how long the outage would last.
Prices, markets, and warnings
After the East-West pipeline shutdown, Reuters reported that Brent crude futures rose $1.24, or 1.18%, to $106.93 a barrel at 0026 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures were up $1.29, or 1.24%, at $102.65 a barrel.
The Reuters report also said Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen launched fresh attacks on Saudi Arabia on Monday, including a missile and drone attack on the Khamis Mushait military airbase in southern Saudi Arabia that hit aircraft hangars, radar systems, runways and ammunition depots.
In the same Reuters account, the market was described as highly sensitive to any sign that the East-West pipeline or Hormuz flows could normalise, and it warned that Saudi Arabia could begin to exhaust oil available for export within days unless it restores operations.
The Reuters report added that the world’s biggest exporter had used the pipeline to reroute around 4 million barrels per day—around 4% of global supply—to the port of Yanbu on the Red Sea.
Separately, ABC News quoted Ramanan Krishnamoorti, a professor of petroleum engineering at the University of Houston, saying, “Workarounds like the East-West pipeline have been crucial for keeping prices in check.”
How long it lasts
Al Jazeera said the closure came as the Strait of Hormuz had been disrupted since March, and it framed the East-West pipeline as a “critical artery for the kingdom’s energy exports” that became more important due to the US-Israel war on Iran.
On the timeline for restoration, Al Jazeera reported that sources familiar with the incident told Reuters that repairs could take five to six weeks, while another source said operations could restart sooner.
Al Jazeera also said Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated the attack caused injuries and damage to infrastructure, and it reported that the launch of the drones was traced to Maysan province in southeastern Iraq.
In a separate Reuters report carried by Al-Jazirah Net, U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burghom said Saudi Arabia was working to fix the East-West pipeline line as quickly as possible and stressed the need to rely on information issued by Riyadh rather than external sources.
That same Reuters report said crude oil inventories at the end of the pipeline allow continued loading of ships even if it is temporarily stopped, and it added that the pipeline flows had halted by about 4 million barrels per day after the attack.