Drone strikes suspend Saudi pipeline as oil supply risks deepen
Damage and injuries near Riyadh and Medina have forced a precautionary shutdown of Saudi Arabia’s key alternative route for exporting crude.
Saudi Arabia has suspended operations on its 1,200-kilometre East-West oil pipeline after drone strikes caused infrastructure damage and injuries near Riyadh and Medina, according to the country’s Ministry of Energy. The pipeline’s restart date remains unclear.
The route links eastern oilfields with the Red Sea port of Yanbu, allowing Saudi Arabia to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. It has a maximum capacity of about seven million barrels per day, although Kpler estimated flows at roughly two million barrels per day in August.
Saudi crude sent west reportedly rose to about four to five million barrels per day during the conflict, equivalent to roughly four to five per cent of global supply. That figure reflects reported recent throughput and does not establish how much oil is currently offline.
Al Jazeera reported that sources familiar with the incident gave differing estimates for repairs, ranging from an earlier restart to five or six weeks. Saudi authorities also said the drones were traced to Iraq’s Maysan province, although that claim has not been independently established in the source material.
The shutdown comes as flows through the Strait of Hormuz and Red Sea routes face disruption. Reuters sources cited by Al Jazeera said Yanbu stocks could sustain exports for about five to seven days, with additional supplies potentially available from Egyptian storage facilities.
The extent of the damage and the effect on global oil markets remain uncertain. The International Energy Agency has said Saudi supply reached a more than three-decade low in August amid regional disruptions, while global inventories have also been falling.
