Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline, a critical artery bypassing the Strait of Hormuz, was reportedly hit in an Iranian drone attack on Wednesday, Reuters has reported. According to the report, a pumping station along the 1,200 km pipeline was struck by a drone early morning on Wednesday. Prior to the attack, the pipeline was pumping at its emergency capacity of 7 million barrels per day (bpd) to bypass the shuttered Strait of Hormuz.
The strike occurred just hours after a U.S.-Iran ceasefire announcement, which has so far failed to halt regional hostilities.
The East-West pipeline has been serving as Saudi Arabia’s primary remaining export outlet since the war began in late February, with roughly 5 million bpd of crude exported via the Red Sea port of Yanbu.
The strike occurred just hours after a U.S.-Iran ceasefire announcement, which has so far failed to halt regional hostilities.
Other facilities in the kingdom were also targeted in the wave of strikes, which the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed included oil facilities owned by American companies in Yanbu. This disruption came amid expectations of a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz as part of the ceasefire deal between the United States and Iran. Reports of the damage are likely to temper optimism generated by the ceasefire, with crude prices pulling back sharply from multi-year highs after the deal was announced.
While the East-West pipeline has been acting as a crucial safety valve for Saudi Arabia, it can only act as a stopgap due to limitations from increased Houthi security threats in the Red Sea, logistical constraints on volume, and inability to handle LNG exports. The Bab el-Mandeb strait has become the primary bottleneck for global energy security since the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. This narrow waterway is currently the only maritime link for oil diverted from the Persian Gulf via Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline.
The strait remains a major vulnerability, with previous threats showing the potential to halt shipping in the Red Sea. Further, the pipeline cannot replace the full 15 million barrels that typically flow through the Persian Gulf, with overall exports from the region remaining below pre-crisis levels.
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