Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline, crucial for carrying crude from the Gulf to the Red Sea for export, has been attacked, sources told the Financial Times on Wednesday.
Sources were quoted as saying that a pumping station was hit by a drone at about 1pm local time on Wednesday. They said the damage was being assessed.
Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company that owns and operates the pipeline, declined to comment to the Financial Times. The company has been rerouting exports to the Red Sea via the line to avoid the Strait of Hormuz, the report added.
The pumping station under attack was one of several along the 1,200km pipeline that has become an economic lifeline for the kingdom since the near closure of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
The attack came hours after Iran and the US agreed a ceasefire deal on Tuesday evening US time.
Why is Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline crucial?
Saudi Arabia’s east-west pipeline was built in the 1980s due to concerns that the Strait of Hormuz would be closed during the Iran-Iraq “tanker war”, FT reported.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg explained that the East-West pipeline has become a crucial part of Saudi Arabia’s oil export business since Iran all but shut down traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
The shutdown allowed the kingdom — the world’s largest crude exporter — to re-route oil flows from the Persian Gulf to its Western shore, in the Red Sea.
As of late March, the pipeline was pumping oil at its full capacity of 7 million barrels a day, sources told Bloomberg.
“The East-West pipeline is looking like a strategic masterstroke right now,” Jim Krane, the Wallace S. Wilson Fellow for Energy Studies at Houston’s Rice University was quoted by Bloomberg as saying.
“The entire global economy is better off with the line in operation,” he added.
US-Iran ceasefire
The US and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire just hours before President Donald Trump’s deadline ended on Tuesday.
“Based on conversations with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir, of Pakistan, and wherein they requested that I hold off the destructive force being sent tonight to Iran, and subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz, I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks. This will be a double sided CEASEFIRE!,” Trump announced on Tuesday.
The US President later said that the country “will be helping with the traffic buildup in the Strait of Hormuz.”
Trump announced on Wednesday, “A country supplying Military Weapons to Iran will be immediately tariffed, on any and all goods sold to the United States of America, 50%, effective immediately. There will be no exclusions or exemptions.”
He also revealed a few details of the deal, saying, “The United States will work closely with Iran, which we have determined has gone through what will be a very productive Regime Change!”
“There will be no enrichment of Uranium, and the United States will, working with Iran, dig up and remove all of the deeply buried (B-2 Bombers) Nuclear “Dust.” It is now, and has been, under very exacting Satellite Surveillance (Space Force!),” Trump said.
“Nothing has been touched from the date of attack. We are, and will be, talking Tariff and Sanctions relief with Iran. Many of the 15 points have already been been agreed to,” he added.
