The U.S. last month sent two additional Patriot missile batteries to protect energy infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and Qatar from Iranian strikes in case the war escalates again, U.S. officials and a Persian Gulf regional source told Axios on Friday.
The U.S. military sent one Patriot missile battery to Saudi Arabia to protect a key oil-producing facility and another one to Qatar to help protect a natural gas site, according to Axios’ sources.
Escalation in the region could flare up again if U.S. President Donald Trump decides to resume strikes on Iran.
On Thursday, the President said, in yet another warning in the more than seven-month-long war, “Now I have to make a decision. They’ll either sign a very fair deal, or they won’t exist any longer.”
Energy infrastructure in both Saudi Arabia and Qatar has come under fire from Iran over the course of the ongoing war.
In early March, Iranian strikes hit parts of the world’s single biggest LNG liquefaction site at Ras Laffan in Qatar, forcing QatarEnergy to halt most operations, which are also curbed by shipping constraints at the Strait of Hormuz.
In Saudi Arabia, the most recent energy infrastructure scare was the drone hits on the East-West onshore pipeline, which the Kingdom was forced to shut down for two weeks following the attacks that damaged pumping stations on September 10.
Saudi Arabia has restarted partial operations on the pipeline, which is its key workaround to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. Full resumption of flows of about 4 million barrels per day (bpd) would likely take a few more weeks.
The Kingdom has also restarted crude oil loadings at the Yanbu port on the Red Sea after the East-West pipeline resumed partial service.
At any rate, the attack on the pipeline raised concerns about crude oil supply from the Middle East at a time of soaring fuel prices globally.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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