Saudi pipeline hit by drones is out of service for weeks

Ooil prices have risen by more than 2% due to growing concerns about global supply and the impact of these new events on the ability of the world's largest exporter to bring their crude oil to the market.

Tensions with Iran forced the kingdom to divert its exports out of the Persian Gulf, as Iranian attacks damaged navigation by the Gulf's only exit, the Ormuz Strait.

The kingdom began to depend on the East-West pipeline, which crosses 1,200 kilometres from the national territory, to transport its crude production from the Gulf ports to the port of Yanbu, in the Red Sea.

From then on, the product can be shipped on tankers for export. However, the authorities were forced to stop the pipeline operation after an attack on Thursday, attributed by Saudi Arabia to militia drones supported by Iran in Iraq.

Damage repair, including at a major lifting station, may take three to five weeks, the authorities, who were notified of the situation and spoke anonymously, have been informed of the damage.

The pipeline could operate partially during repairs, indicated one of the authorities, but it was not possible to specify how much oil it could pass.

The pipeline carried a weekly average of 2.6 million to 4 million barrels a day since the end of August, a volume that would cease to reach the market if the flow was completely interrupted, according to an analysis released today by Rystad Energy, a research company based in Norway.

The company stated that the rise in Brent oil prices, which reached 109 dollars, “is a clear sign that the market is increasingly pricing a significant loss in supply.”.

Supported by Iran, Yemen's Houthis rebels continue to extend the threat to Saudi navigation routes leaving the Red Sea by capturing the strategic islands of Great and Little Hanish, according to government officials and the Houthis.

The islands are located 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The strait is a strategic strangulation point linking the Red Sea to the open ocean and Saudi Arabia's main Asian markets.

The advance of the Houthis also places them only 20 miles (32 miles) from the U.S. military base in the small country of Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa, across the narrowness of Bab el-Mandeb.

For more than a month, the Houthis have been attacking oil and Saudi shipping in the Red Sea, intensifying pressure on global oil prices and increasing Iran's negotiating power in its conflict with the United States.

The conflict that involved Iran severely damaged Saudi oil production, which fell to 6 million barrels a day in August, compared to almost 10 million September of the previous year, according to the International Energy Agency, an intergovernmental group based in Paris.