In a landmark official statement released Thursday, Saudi Arabia’s energy ministry confirmed that coordinated attacks on its critical East-West oil pipeline have eliminated 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) of production capacity — equal to roughly 10 percent of the kingdom’s current total oil exports.
The ministry’s announcement marked the first time Riyadh has publicly acknowledged that Iranian strikes have caused meaningful damage to its national energy infrastructure, a revelation that lands just 48 hours before high-stakes US-Iran peace negotiations are set to kick off in Islamabad, Pakistan. Among the targets hit was a key pumping station along the East-West pipeline, the kingdom’s primary alternative route for getting Gulf crude to global markets after Iran blocked commercial vessel traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s busiest chokepoint for oil trade. Connecting Saudi Arabia’s oil-rich Gulf coast to the Red Sea export terminal at Yanbu, the pipeline had previously been operating at full 7 million bpd capacity, per earlier reporting from Bloomberg. The attack cut that pumped volume by 10 percent overnight.
Beyond the pipeline strike, Riyadh also confirmed that two major oil processing facilities, Manifa and Khurais, were targeted in earlier Iranian attacks. Those strikes reduced combined production capacity at the two sites by an additional 600,000 bpd. Iranian forces also struck major refining complexes in four key Saudi locations: Jubail, Ras Tanura, Yanbu and the capital Riyadh. Those hits have directly cut into the kingdom’s ability to ship refined petroleum products to global buyers.
In its official statement, the energy ministry warned that the ongoing wave of attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure carries severe consequences for global energy security. “The continuation of these attacks leads to supply shortages and slows the pace of recovery, impacting the security of supplies for beneficiary countries and contributing to increased volatility in oil markets,” the statement read.
The public confirmation marks a sharp shift from Riyadh’s previous approach, which saw the kingdom stay largely silent on damage from repeated attacks on its energy assets. The announcement comes amid a fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran, announced earlier this week, that Saudi Arabia has publicly welcomed. Multiple international outlets including the Financial Times have reported that other Gulf states including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait have also faced continued Iranian strikes in recent days, though violence had tapered off by Thursday.
Diplomatic preparations for the Saturday talks in Pakistan have accelerated in recent days. On Thursday, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan held separate calls with his Pakistani counterpart Mohammad Ishaq Dar and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. As a close strategic partner of both Islamabad and Riyadh, Pakistan’s role as mediator for the talks was only possible with explicit approval from the Saudi government, unnamed diplomats told Middle East Eye. The talks come amid shifting geopolitical alignments in the region: earlier reporting from MEE confirmed that Saudi Arabia recently granted the US military access to King Fahd Air Base in western Saudi Arabia, after Washington pressured Riyadh to back the US-Israeli campaign against Iran.