Missile and drone strikes have cut Saudi Arabia’s oil production capacity by about 600,000 barrels per day and reduced flows through its East-West pipeline by roughly 700,000 bpd, the Kingdom’s energy ministry has revealed.
The East-West system has become one of Saudi Arabia’s primary export routes, moving crude from the Gulf to the Red Sea and bypassing the Strait of Hormuz.
One of the pipeline’s pumping stations was struck, limiting throughput. At the same time, direct hits to upstream assets have taken barrels offline. The Manifa field lost about 300,000 bpd of capacity, and previous damage at Khurais accounts for another 300,000 bpd.
Refining capacity has also been hit, including Ras Tanura, Jubail, Yanbu, and Riyadh. Processing sites at Ju’aymah were affected by fires, reducing exports of liquefied petroleum gas and natural gas liquids as well.
Saudi Arabia has been the subject of repeated attacks since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, with hundreds of missiles and drones targeting energy infrastructure across the Kingdom. Most have been intercepted, but enough have landed to disrupt operations.
The loss of pipeline capacity compounds the problem. Even barrels that can still be produced face constraints reaching export terminals.
Saudi Arabia remains the world’s largest oil exporter and a central supplier to global markets. Any disruption to its production, refining, or export system feeds directly into available supply.
According to the energy ministry, ongoing attacks are also drawing down operational and emergency inventories, reducing the country’s ability to offset losses.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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