“They Said It Would Take Months”... U.S. Energy Secretary Says Saudi Pipeline Will Resume Operations Within Days

【Financial News New York = Reporter Lee Byung-chul】 Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline, a key crude oil transport route whose operations were suspended after a drone attack by Iran-backed forces, is expected to resume operations within days. Concerns had emerged that repairing the pipeline could take several months because the damage was more serious than expected. However, the U.S. government has directly indicated that operations could resume within “days,” raising questions about whether concerns over supply in the international crude oil market will ease.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNBC on the 15th local time in Houston, where energy officials from the Group of Twenty (G20) had gathered, that Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline would resume operations “very soon.” Wright said, “This shutdown will be brief and temporary,” adding, “The interruption will last a matter of days.”
Saudi Arabia suspended operations late last week after the pipeline was damaged in a drone attack launched from Iraq. Wright identified Iran-backed proxies as being behind the attack.
The East-West oil pipeline is a key energy infrastructure route that transports crude oil from Saudi Arabia’s eastern oil fields to Yanbu on the Red Sea coast. As the United States and Iran clashed over control of the Strait of Hormuz, Saudi Arabia had used the pipeline to export crude without passing through the strait.
With the pipeline shut down, Saudi Arabia has been rerouting some export volumes through the Strait of Hormuz with support from the U.S. military, Wright explained.
Concerns about supply disruptions are growing in the international crude oil market. U.S. crude oil prices have risen more than 5% this week, surpassing $105 per barrel.
The possibility of a prolonged shutdown also emerged after satellite images showed that one of the pipeline’s pumping stations had sustained significant damage. Andy Lipow, head of Lipow Oil Associates, assessed based on the publicly released images that “repairs will take several months.” The Saudi government described the pipeline closure as a “preventive measure,” but did not disclose the extent of the damage or when operations would resume.


[email protected] Reporter Lee Byung-chul Reporter