Drone attack shuts Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline

Drones launched from Iraq's Maysan province struck pump stations on Saudi Arabia's 1,200km East-West pipeline (Petroline) on 11 September, causing fires, injuries and damage in the Riyadh and Medina regions and forcing Saudi Arabia to shut the pipeline as a precaution; Trump told reporters in Dublin he believed Iran was 'probably' behind the attack. The pipeline, built in 1981 to let Saudi Arabia bypass the Strait of Hormuz by moving 2.6-4 million barrels a day of crude to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, had become critical to Saudi oil exports since the ongoing US-Israel-Iran war largely closed the Strait; officials said repairs to the damaged pumping facility could take three to six weeks. Saudi Arabia said it would not retaliate immediately, at the request of Iraq's prime minister, who dismissed the military commander overseeing Maysan province after investigations confirmed the drones originated there, while reserving the right to respond later to protect its sovereignty.

The pipeline's closure compounded a worsening regional energy crisis: Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen simultaneously seized the strategic Greater and Lesser Hanish islands and other points near the Bab al-Mandeb strait, tightening their blockade on Red Sea shipping and prompting Saudi strikes on Houthi-held areas in response, while satellite imagery also showed damage to Saudi Arabia's King Khalid Air Base from a separate Houthi strike. Brent crude jumped to around $108-109 a barrel, with analysts at Rystad Energy and Kpler warning the pipeline's loss could remove as much as 3.6 million barrels a day -- roughly 3.6% of global oil demand -- from the market at a time when Hormuz traffic remained near a standstill.