Saudi Arabia announced on Friday it had shut down its crucial East-West oil pipeline as a precautionary response to a drone attack launched from Iraqi territory. The pipeline, a key piece of infrastructure built in the 1980s, runs 1,201 kilometers (746 miles) across the Arabian Peninsula, connecting oil fields in the east to the Red Sea port of Yanbu. It allows Saudi Arabia to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic chokepoint Iran blockaded following a U.S.-Israeli military strike in late February, which disrupted global oil exports.
The East-West pipeline plays a vital role in maintaining Saudi Arabia’s oil exports amid ongoing regional tensions. The route provides an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz by enabling shipments through the Bab al-Mandab Strait at the southern entrance to the Red Sea. However, this maritime passage has grown increasingly precarious due to the expansion of Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen, who recently seized additional coastal areas near the strait, including the Persian Island and the port of Mokha. These developments have heightened the risk to Saudi shipping and oil tankers navigating to global markets.
While Saudi Arabia can also send oil northward through a pipeline near the Suez Canal in Egypt, this route is more expensive and adds significant transit time, particularly to Asian markets, the kingdom’s primary customers. According to shipping data, a limited number of tankers have been rerouted to avoid the Strait of Hormuz under U.S. military guidance, but the pipeline remains critical to sustaining Saudi oil exports, which fell to 3.2 million barrels per day last month—their lowest in over a decade.
No group has formally claimed responsibility for the drone strike on the pipeline. However, Saudi officials have indicated that the attack originated from Iraq, a country where Iran-backed militias operate with relative autonomy. U.S. President Donald Trump suggested on Saturday that Iran was "probably" behind the assault, a claim that Tehran has not addressed. In response, Iraq’s Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi announced plans for a joint investigation with Iran into cross-border drone launches.
Analysts interpret the attack as part of a broader pattern of escalating tensions following intensified U.S. economic sanctions against Iran. Former senior U.S. State Department official Joey Hood said Tehran appears to be targeting Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure to counterbalance mounting economic pressure, as the pipeline had become a partial workaround to the Strait of Hormuz blockade.
Saudi Arabia experienced a similar attack on the East-West pipeline in April, which temporarily reduced pumping capacity by nearly 700,000 barrels per day before repairs restored operations. Following that incident and after months of restraint, Riyadh launched retaliatory strikes alongside the United States against Iran-affiliated militia sites in eastern Iraq in July.
This time, Saudi Arabia has opted not to retaliate immediately, expressing support for Iraqi government efforts to prevent further attacks emanating from its territory, according to the Saudi foreign ministry. Nevertheless, observers suggest that continued Iranian aggression could prompt Gulf states to adopt a more forceful posture as the conflict risks further expansion. Hood cautioned that while Gulf countries have so far exercised significant restraint, this may not persist indefinitely.