Saudi East-West Oil Pipeline Hit in Madinah Region, Ministry Says Operations Unaffected

Emergency and specialised technical teams went to the site straight away, secured it and checked that it was safe, the ministry said, in line with approved emergency procedures. The ministry did not say what hit the line or who was responsible. No group had claimed the attack, and Gulf News reported that the cause is under investigation.

The pipeline matters well beyond Saudi Arabia. It runs about 1,200 km from the Abqaiq area in the Eastern Province to Yanbu on the Red Sea, and it is the kingdom's main way to export crude without sending tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, where shipping has been severely disrupted since the Iran war began. Any damage to the line affects how much Saudi oil can reach buyers while the Gulf route is constrained.

It has been attacked before. In September a drone strike on a pumping station led Saudi Arabia to shut the whole line as a precaution, and the outage halted loadings at Yanbu for a time.

Monday's incident came during a wider wave of attacks on the kingdom. Coalition spokesman Major General Turki Al Maliki said Saudi air defences intercepted and destroyed five missiles fired by the Houthis on Sunday: two ballistic missiles aimed at Riyadh, a third aimed at the Eastern Province, and two cruise missiles over the Riyadh and southern regions. The energy ministry said separately that falling debris from an attempted attack caused limited damage to an Aramco administrative building in Riyadh, with no casualties.

The UAE's foreign ministry condemned what it called a Houthi attempt to target several areas in Saudi Arabia, describing it as a flagrant violation of the kingdom's sovereignty, and said it stood fully with Riyadh.

The ministry's statement did not say whether Monday's fire affected crude flows to Yanbu, beyond saying operations were unaffected. It also did not say when the investigation into the cause would be finished.