Saudi East-West Pipeline Attack: Fire Near Medina Put Out

Saudi Arabia has reported a new attack on its East-West crude oil pipeline in the Medina region, the line that has carried the bulk of the kingdom’s oil exports since the war with Iran largely closed the Strait of Hormuz. An official at the Saudi Ministry of Energy stated on November 9 that the pipeline had been targeted that day, causing a limited fire that emergency crews extinguished, and that the cause was under investigation. The official named no attacker and did not say whether a drone or a missile was used, stating: “No injuries or fatalities were reported, and pipeline operations were unaffected.” The statement is significant as an admission in itself, with Riyadh having declined to confirm any of the strikes on the line claimed by Yemen’s Ansarullah movement, widely known as the Houthis, in late October.

The attack follows a week of Houthi fire at western Saudi Arabia, with the Saudi-led coalition having stated on November 5 that its air defences intercepted a ballistic missile launched towards the Medina region, an announcement that came minutes after the national early warning platform issued a danger alert for the port of Yanbu where the pipeline ends. Ansarullah military spokesman Yahya Saree denied that the city had been the target, stating that the movement’s operations “target only oil facilities and military bases.” Debris from missiles intercepted over the capital on November 8 damaged the Aramco Tower in Riyadh’s financial district, and on November 9 the coalition announced that it had destroyed a missile factory and a solid propellant plant in Houthi-held territory. Saree had earlier claimed drone strikes on pumping stations along the pipeline on October 24 and October 26, neither of which the Saudi authorities confirmed.

The East-West Pipeline runs about 1,200 kilometres from Abqaiq in the Eastern Province to Yanbu on the Red Sea, and Saudi Aramco rates it at seven million barrels per day. By some estimates it has carried around four million barrels of crude a day to Yanbu since the fighting disrupted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, roughly four percent of world supply, which makes it particularly valuable to Riyadh and an obvious target for its adversaries. Its vulnerability was demonstrated in September, when drones that Riyadh and Baghdad said were launched from Iraq forced a precautionary shutdown on September 11, and Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman stated on October 6 that flows had been restored to 5.8 million barrels per day, considerably short of the rated capacity.

The ministry did not say whether a pumping station or the pipe itself was hit near Medina, a distinction that matters because pumping stations take considerably longer to repair than a breached section of line. No group had claimed the November 9 attack by the time the ministry’s statement was carried by Saudi state media, and the coalition had reported a ballistic missile fired towards the same region only four days earlier. The pipeline was built in the early 1980s, during the Iran-Iraq War, precisely to give Saudi crude a route to market that avoided the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.