Saudi pipeline shutdown amid drone attacks as Houthis seize Red Sea chokepoint

Saudi Arabia has shut down its East-West pipeline after drone strikes hit pumping stations in the Riyadh and Madinah regions on Thursday, marking an escalation in the widening conflict that now threatens one of the world's most critical energy arteries. The attack, which injured several people and caused damage still being assessed, struck at infrastructure that has become essential to global oil markets. The Saudi Energy Ministry announced Friday that the pipeline had been taken offline as a precautionary measure following the strikes.

The 1,200-kilometre pipeline, built in the 1980s, has grown increasingly vital precisely because it offers an escape route around the Strait of Hormuz, where tanker traffic has been severely disrupted by the broader conflict. Running from Saudi Arabia's eastern oil fields to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, it has been carrying between 4 million and 5 million barrels of crude daily in recent months—roughly 4 to 5 percent of global supply. By early June, Saudi Arabia had more than doubled its daily exports from Yanbu to over 5 million barrels. Satellite imagery showed fire and thick black smoke rising from at least one pumping station after the attack. US officials determined that the pumping stations themselves had been hit, though it remained unclear whether the pipeline itself had suffered damage or how long repairs would take.

The Saudi Foreign Ministry attributed the strikes to multiple drones originating from Iraq, where Iranian-backed militias operate. Rather than retaliate immediately, Saudi Arabia held back after Iraq's prime minister requested time for Baghdad to take action against those responsible. The kingdom issued a carefully worded statement reserving the right to take all necessary measures to protect its sovereignty and security, but stopped short of military response. Iraq's government condemned the attack and said it would not permit its territory or airspace to be used for strikes against Saudi Arabia or neighboring countries. An investigation led to the dismissal of a military commander, and Baghdad ordered the closure of the Shalamcheh border crossing with Iran as a precautionary step while launching operations to identify those behind the assault.

The pipeline attack coincided with a separate but related threat to global energy flows: Iran-backed Houthi rebels have seized control of Perim Island in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a strategically vital chokepoint at the southern entrance to the Red Sea. This came after the Houthis also took the port city of Mocha. The Bab el-Mandeb has become far more important since the Strait of Hormuz was disrupted—before the conflict, roughly 20 million barrels of oil daily passed through Hormuz, representing about a fifth of global supply. With that route compromised, Saudi crude increasingly depended on the Red Sea passage, but Houthi threats have already caused Saudi oil flows through the Bab el-Mandeb to fall sharply.

The combination of these two developments—the pipeline shutdown and Houthi control of the Red Sea strait—creates a narrowing corridor for global oil exports. Further disruptions could force tankers to navigate much longer routes around Africa, raising shipping costs substantially and adding pressure to energy prices that have already climbed above $100 a barrel. The world's oil markets now face a situation where two of the three major routes for Middle Eastern crude have been compromised or threatened, with the third—the East-West pipeline—now offline pending repairs and assessment of damage.