A major oil pipeline system in Saudi Arabia was hit by projectiles on Thursday, according to a CNN report citing two US officials familiar with the incident on Friday. Satellite imagery captured on Friday appeared to show significant fire damage at one of the stations, while another image taken a day earlier showed a small fire producing thick plumes of black smoke.
The reported strike highlights the growing risks facing ’s oil infrastructure and its ability to export crude as the war with Iran continues. It came just days after an Iranian-aligned militia seized a strategically important Red Sea port city in , an development that could pose further risks to energy shipments in the region.
One of the officials said an initial assessment indicated that pumping stations located alongside the pipeline were struck.
It was not immediately known who was behind the strikes or whether the pipeline itself had sustained damage. However, one of the US officials said drones launched from Iraq were involved in the attack. The report citing sources also said there was no immediate estimate of how long repairs would take.
Satellites showed nine major fires near Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline on Thursday. However, at least six of the locations appeared to match flare pits, where oil and gas may be burned during emergency situations.
The East-West pipeline has assumed greater importance for Saudi Arabia since the US-Iran war began. With effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz, the kingdom has redirected around 5 million barrels of oil a day that would otherwise have been loaded onto tankers in the Persian Gulf. The crude has instead been transported through the East-West pipeline to Yanbu, Saudi Arabia’s port on the Red Sea.
Meanwhile, Oil prices surged above $100 a barrel this week as developments in the Middle East triggered sharp fluctuations in the market.
The Saudi government and state-owned oil giant Aramco did not immediately respond to its requests for comment. The US State Department and White House also did not respond immediately, while US Central Command declined to comment on the incident, the report noted.
Its source familiar with the matter said US officials are gathering intelligence to determine more details about the incident.
Although the origin of the attack remained unclear, Iran-aligned militia groups in Iraq have previously carried out drone strikes against Saudi Arabia, according to Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Iran programme at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). He said the groups may have been involved again as part of a broader Iranian strategy of using proxy forces to pressure Arab countries into opposing the presence of US forces in the region.
Saudi Defence Minister Khalid bin Salman met US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance in Washington, DC in late July. During the meeting, he conveyed the Kingdom’s assessment of the ongoing US war with Iran, comprising its view that Tehran could seek leverage by escalating tensions and deploying its remaining proxy forces, including militias in Iraq and the Houthis, sources told CNN.
