Saudi Arabia shuts East-West Pipeline after attacks

Saudi Arabia has shut down its critical East-West Pipeline following a series of attacks on energy infrastructure located across the Riyadh and Madinah regions, according to an official statement released by the Ministry of Energy. The precautionary shutdown was executed on Thursday morning immediately following the strikes, which resulted in injuries requiring medical treatment for affected personnel. Emergency and technical teams were dispatched without delay to secure the targeted pipeline sections, contain potential damage, and evaluate operational safety in direct coordination with relevant authorities and emergency response protocols. The East-West Pipeline serves as a crucial strategic transit route enabling Saudi crude oil to bypass the Persian Gulf and reach Red Sea export terminals. The unexpected disruption to Saudi Arabia's pipeline network introduces fresh geopolitical risk premiums to global energy markets. Traders and market participants are closely monitoring potential supply disruptions and assessing the duration of the outage, as ongoing threats to Middle Eastern energy infrastructure could tighten crude supplies and trigger sharp volatility across global oil benchmarks.