Saudi Arabia Shuts Down East-West Crude Oil Pipeline After Attacks

Saudi Arabia on Friday announced it shut down its East-West Pipeline “as a precaution” after several attacks were reported a day earlier.

The Kingdom’s Ministry of Energy said on social media that the critical oil pipeline came under attack Thursday, resulting in injuries.

The ministry did not say who was responsible for the attacks or if the pipeline was significantly damaged.

Emergency crews responded to the attacks and took measures to secure the pipeline, according to the statement. “Any further developments will be announced in due course,” an official ministry source said.

The East-West Pipeline, which runs from eastern Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq oil field to the Red Sea, was constructed in the 1980s to bypass attacks on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz that occurred during the Iran-Iraq War.

This week, the Iran-backed Houthi terrorist organization in Yemen launched attacks in Saudi Arabia and also sought to capture government areas in Yemen. The Houthi drones and missiles targeted energy facilities.

The attacks came as Mokha, key city in Yemen located along the Red Sea, was captured by Houthi forces earlier this week, a spokesperson for the group said.

A Houthi military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said that maritime navigation remained safe for all shipping except Saudi vessels.

“We will continue to enforce blockade for blockade and escalation for escalation until the aggression stops and the blockade on our people is lifted,” he told Reuters, referring to Saudi attacks on Yemen.

Saudi Arabia struck the airport in Mokha that the Houthis seized, a Houthi broadcaster said. There were no reports of damage or deaths.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, has increasingly relied on the Red Sea shipping route to get its crude oil to market as an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has been striking ships.

Oil prices shot above $100 per barrel earlier this week. A barrel of Brent crude slipped about 2 percentage points to $104 per barrel, while West Texas International crude dropped more than 1 percent to roughly $100 per barrel on Friday.

The Houthis have been at war with Yemen’s government since 2014, when the rebels swept from their mountainous heartland and seized much of northern and central Yemen, and the capital of Sanaa. Saudi Arabia entered the war the following year on behalf of the government.

The broader conflict with the United States and Iran started in February when the U.S. and Israeli militaries launched strikes in the country, removing significant numbers of officials in the Iranian regime’s leadership.

U.S. forces this month and in August have launched sporadic attacks against Iranian assets around the Hormuz Strait amid a campaign to impose economic pressure on Tehran. It came after U.S.-Iran negotiations effectively fell through after a memorandum of understanding was signed by the two parties in June.

President Donald Trump on Friday said at a Sept. 11, 2001, commemoration event that Iran’s regime should never be able to obtain a nuclear weapon, describing Tehran as the “world’s No. 1 sponsor of terror.”

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.