The only oil pipeline to the Red Sea attacked by a drone

Saudi East-West oil pipeline attacked Wednesday afternoon by Iranian drone; the damage is currently being assessed, Bloomberg reported. The pipeline leading to the Red Sea is the only outlet for Saudi oil exports after Iran blocked the Strait of Hormuz.

Saudi state oil company Aramco declined to comment, Bloomberg reported.

The 1,200-kilometer East-West pipeline runs from the oil fields on Saudi Arabia's eastern coast to the Red Sea port of Yanbu.

After the US and Israel began bombing Iran on February 28, navigation in the Strait of Hormuz – a key oil and gas transport route – was severely disrupted. As a result, the East-West pipeline became the main route for oil exports from the Persian Gulf region.

Under normal conditions, approximately 20 million barrels of oil and 4 million barrels of refined products flow through the Strait of Hormuz daily. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), oil exports from the East-West pipeline may reach 5 to 7 million barrels per day.

Some exports may also bypass Hormuz via the United Arab Emirates pipeline from the Habshan oil field in the emirate of Abu Dhabi to the port of Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman. According to the IEA, during the second week of the war, an average of 2.4 million barrels were loaded there per day.

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