The Iran-backed Houthis on Monday claimed they attacked pumping stations along Saudi Arabia’s East-West onshore oil pipeline, the Kingdom’s key crude export route bypassing the Strait of Hormuz.
The Houthis also said they attacked the Riyadh airport amid escalating hostilities between the Iran-aligned movement in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
As of early Monday, Saudi Arabia had not confirmed any attacks on the oil pipeline, which was down for two weeks in September following drone attacks that damaged pumping stations and halted loadings of crude oil cargoes at the Yanbu port on the Red Sea.
On Saturday, the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen said that air defenses intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched by the Houthi militia toward Riyadh, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
In the past weeks, the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen have expanded their strikes on targets in Saudi Arabia with hits on infrastructure, including a strike near the Shaybah oilfield.
The Houthis say they are responding to the offensive of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, which is seeking to reclaim territory in the southwest on the Red Sea and the critical Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
Last week, two people were killed and two others injured by debris from intercepted drones near a processing plant at the Shaybah field, one of the biggest oilfields in Saudi Arabia.
Operations at the Shaybah field and its processing facilities remain unaffected, but the attack rattled markets again amid concerns about potential disruption to Saudi supply just as the Kingdom has largely restored its exports via the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea.
The 740-mile-long East-West pipeline, also known as Petroline, has helped Saudi Arabia divert most of its crude oil exports away from the choked Strait of Hormuz and ship increasingly larger volumes via Yanbu on the Red Sea.
The pipeline was down for two weeks following the September 10 attacks on pumping stations, before resuming operations and boosting flows to 5.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in recent weeks.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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