Saudi Arabia’s critical East-West oil pipeline was shut as a precaution after multiple attacks on Thursday, the kingdom’s Ministry of Energy said Friday, as U.S. officials separately described projectile strikes that sparked fires at pump stations along the system, CNN and Bloomberg reported.
An early U.S. analysis found pump stations beside the pipeline were hit; satellite imagery showed extensive fire damage at one station near Al Mesba’ah and smoke at another near Al Dhekra. One U.S. official said drones originating from Iraq were involved; Saudi authorities confirmed injuries and the shutdown but did not publicly name a perpetrator. The East-West line moves crude from eastern fields to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, a bypass Saudi Arabia has leaned on since Iran’s conflict squeezed Hormuz — carrying rerouted volumes that had reached about 5 million barrels a day in that workaround role, CNN said.
Oil prices have surged past $100 a barrel amid Middle East fighting. The pipeline hits land days after Iran-aligned Houthis seized Mocha and advanced on Bab al-Mandab shipping lanes, compounding pressure on Saudi export routes. Repairing pump stations may be less burdensome than fixing the pipeline itself, U.S. officials and experts said; Saudi production already plunged last month to the lowest levels since 1990, per OPEC reporting cited by CNN.
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