Saudi Arabia Announces East-West Oil Pipeline Targeted, Fire Extinguished
On Monday, Saudi Arabia announced that its strategic East-West oil pipeline was targeted in the Medina region in the west of the country, leading to a minor fire, with no injuries or impact on oil transport operations.
The official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) quoted a responsible source in the Ministry of Energy as saying that the attack caused a fire, which emergency teams managed to control and extinguish.
The source added that specialized technical teams began securing the site and verifying its safety, confirming that there were no injuries or deaths and that the pipeline's operational activities continue unaffected.
The Ministry of Energy did not disclose the nature of the attack or who was behind it.
The incident comes less than a week after the Saudi oil company 'Aramco' announced on November 3 the start of preliminary engineering work to expand the East-West pipeline, without specifying project details or a completion date.
The pipeline, known as 'Petroline', extends for about 1,200 kilometers, connecting Abqaiq in the east of the Kingdom with Yanbu on the Red Sea coast, with a transport capacity of about 7 million barrels per day.
The pipeline had been subjected to drone attacks on September 10, which Saudi Arabia later said were launched from Iraq, leading to its temporary closure for repairs before oil pumping gradually resumed.
المصدر: Almahriah Net - Open Sources
