Drones struck Saudi Arabia’s east-west crude oil pipeline last Thursday, and Saudi Arabia suspended operations after the attack. The line, also known as the Petroline, carries crude across 1,200km from eastern fields to Yanbu on the Red Sea.
Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Energy described the shutdown as "precautionary" after the attack caused damage and injuries in the Riyadh and Medina regions. Saudi officials said drones hit the pipeline in two areas around Riyadh and Medina, while Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the attack caused injuries and damage to infrastructure.
Yanbu and the Hormuz route
The pipeline was built in 1981 and can move seven million barrels of oil per day, but actual flows were about two million barrels per day in August according to Kpler. Saudi Arabia increased the amount of crude sent west during the first five months of the conflict, and that westbound flow reached roughly 4 to 5 million barrels per day, or about 4 to 5 percent of global supply.
That shift mattered because the pipeline lets Saudi Arabia bypass the Strait of Hormuz, where oil flows have been severely disrupted. Before the war, the Strait of Hormuz supplied more than a fifth of oil globally, about 20 million bpd. said industry estimates now put the flow at about 6-9 million bpd through the Strait of Hormuz.
Repairs after the March strike
According to Saudi authorities, the launch of the drones was traced to Maysan province in southeastern Iraq. The attack follows a strike in March near the Saudi-Aramco-ExxonMobil refinery in Yanbu that temporarily disrupted crude loadings from the Red Sea port before shipments recovered within days.
Sources familiar with the incident told that repairs could take five to six weeks, though another source said operations could restart sooner. For Saudi Arabia, the immediate question is how quickly westbound crude can move again through the pipeline without another interruption in a route that has become more important as the Strait of Hormuz remains strained.
