Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline, currently its only outlet for exporting crude oil, was hit in an Iranian attack, while other facilities in the kingdom were also targeted, an industry source told Reuters on Wednesday.
The pipeline was diverting around 7 million barrels per day (bpd) from the kingdom’s oil heartland in the east to the Red Sea port of Yanbu after Iran effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz, trapping huge volumes of oil and gas in the Gulf and sending prices skyrocketing.
Flows through the pipeline are expected to be affected, the source said, adding damage was being assessed. That could exacerbate what experts have called the world’s worst energy crisis.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said in a statement on Wednesday they had hit several targets across the region with missiles and drones, including what the IRGC called oil facilities of US companies in Yanbu.
The exact timing of the attack was not immediately clear nor the extent of any damage or the impact on the pipeline’s operations.
The Saudi government communications office and pipeline operator Saudi Aramco did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.
The US and Iran on Tuesday agreed to a two-week ceasefire brokered by Pakistan meant to suspend a six-week-old war that has killed thousands, spread across the Middle East and caused unprecedented energy market disruption.
Attacks on other Gulf countries were not halted despite the agreement.
The Kuwaiti army said that an intensified wave of Iranian attacks had targeted the country since 8.00am local time (0500 GMT), adding drone attacks caused extensive damage to oil facilities, power plants and water desalination plants.
The UAE said it was dealing with Iranian missile and drone attacks and Bahrain reported that an Iranian attack damaged houses in the Sitra area.
Aramco uses about 2 million bpd of the East-West Pipeline’s capacity domestically, leaving roughly 5 million bpd for export. Yanbu loadings averaged a near-capacity 4.6 million bpd in the week starting March 23, shipping data showed.
The pipeline had left the kingdom as a relative winner from the strait’s closure, with a Reuters analysis showing its March estimated oil proceeds were higher than a year earlier.