Energy supply | Saudi Arabia shuts down oil pipeline after attacks

Saudi Arabian oil field, around 160 kilometers from the capital Riyadh Photo: dpa/EPA/Ali Haider Riyadh. The expanding conflict in the Middle East is putting massive pressure on the world's largest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia. After the Iranian blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and the increasing threat to the Bab al-Mandab Strait from the Houthi militia in Yemen, the kingdom also has to shut down an important pipeline following drone attacks. A resulting additional reduction in Saudi exports could cause the price of oil and thus gasoline prices in Germany to rise even further.

The east-west pipeline, which can bring large amounts of oil from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea bypassing the effectively blocked Strait of Hormuz, was shut down as a precaution after attacks on the line in the Riyadh and Medina regions. The Saudi Foreign Ministry announced on Platform X that night that the drone attack, which was launched from Iraq, had caused damage and injured several people.

The Iraqi government condemned the drone attack on Saudi Arabia that came from its own soil. Prime Minister Ali al-Saidi said an investigation should find out the circumstances of the attacks and the actors behind them. He ordered legal action against everyone involved. 

The pro-Iranian group “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” denied any involvement in the drone attack and agreed to cooperate in the investigation. At the same time, she warned against exploiting the events, stoking tensions in the region or dragging the group into the conflict. After the attack, Iraq closed the two most important official border crossings with neighboring Iran for an indefinite period, according to the Iranian news agency Irna.

The attacks on the pipeline hit Saudi Arabia at a very sensitive point: up to seven million barrels of oil (159 liters each) per day can be pumped via the more than 1,200 kilometer long pipes from the Persian Gulf region for shipment west to the Red Sea. Since the beginning of the extensive blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, Saudi Arabia has been trying to use the pipeline to prevent an even greater slump in its oil exports. 

US media reported, citing satellite images, that the attacks probably hit pipeline pumping stations. How extensive the damage is and when it can be repaired initially remained unclear. The pipeline infrastructure had already been attacked in April, as a result of which the capacity of the pipes had to be temporarily reduced. Before the war, Saudi Arabia was the second largest oil producer behind the United States and the world's largest exporter of the raw material.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's most important alternative route to the Strait of Hormuz, shipping via the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait towards Asia, is also increasingly at risk. The Iran-allied Houthi rebels seized Yemen's entire Red Sea coast and strategically important islands, according to Yemeni government sources. A Houthi spokesman assured on Friday that shipping safety would be guaranteed - but this did not apply to Saudi ships. 

The Bab al-Mandab connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden. Both are part of one of the most important shipping routes in the world, which runs from the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal to the Indian Ocean, making it the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia. The Houthi militia has repeatedly attacked ships there in the past. 

The Houthi advance and the damage to the pipeline could drive up the price of oil. However, it is still well below the annual high of around $126, which was reached at the end of April. Before the Iran war, oil prices were around $70 per barrel in February. At that time, around a fifth of global oil and liquid gas exports still went through the Strait of Hormuz.

For Saudi Arabia, the only option left for oil exports is currently to pass through the bottleneck of the Suez Canal. However, transport to customers in Asia from the Saudi west coast across the canal and the Mediterranean and around Africa takes several weeks longer and is correspondingly more expensive. And this export route also partly requires a functioning east-west pipeline, because the largest Saudi oil fields are in the east, closer to the Persian Gulf. dpa/nd

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