Riyadh: In an indication of how difficult it may get for all sides to adhere to the ceasefire between Iran and the US and its allies in the days to come, Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline was hit by a drone on Wednesday.
The attack on the crucial pipeline that carries crude from the Gulf to the Red Sea for export, came hours after the ceasefire was announced, sources told the Financial Times.
A pumping station was hit by a drone at about 1 pm local time on Wednesday, sources were quoted as saying. They said the damage was being assessed.
Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company that owns and operates the pipeline, has been rerouting exports to the Red Sea through it to avoid the Strait of Hormuz, the report added. The company declined to comment to the Financial Times though, as reported by Mint.
According to the report, the pumping station under attack was one of several along the 1,200 km pipeline that has become an economic lifeline for the kingdom since the near closure of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
The East-West pipeline was built in the 1980s due to concerns that the Strait of Hormuz would be closed during the Iran-Iraq “tanker war”, FT reported.
The pipeline became a crucial part of Saudi Arabia’s oil export business since Iran all but shut down traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, after strikes by US-Israeli forces on February 28, Bloomberg reported.
After the shutdown, Saudi Arabia – the world’s largest crude exporter – was able to re-route oil flows from the Persian Gulf to its Western shore, in the Red Sea.
Sources told Bloomberg that as of late March, the pipeline was pumping oil at its full capacity of 7 million barrels a day.
“The East-West pipeline is looking like a strategic masterstroke right now,” Jim Krane, the Wallace S. Wilson Fellow for Energy Studies at Houston’s Rice University was quoted by Bloomberg as saying.
“The entire global economy is better off with the line in operation,” he added.
The US-Iran ceasefire came into effect from Tuesday night. US president Donald Trump later said that the country “will be helping with the traffic buildup in the Strait of Hormuz.”
