Posted on 09/11/2026 10:20:39 AM PDT by BeauBo
Saudi Arabia’s critical East-West oil pipeline system was struck on Thursday, with multiple pumping stations hit in an attack that could threaten one of the kingdom’s most important crude export routes, according to CNN, citing two U.S. officials familiar with the matter...
...OilPrice.com reported that NASA FIRMS had detected multiple large fires near the East-West pipeline, while Sentinel-3 imagery appeared to show a massive plume of black smoke stretching across western Saudi Arabia.
One U.S. official said the attack involved drones originating from Iraq, although responsibility for the strikes has not yet been established...
...It also remains unclear whether the East-West pipeline itself was damaged or how long repairs to the affected pumping infrastructure could take.
The distinction could prove critical for oil markets. Pumping stations can potentially be repaired considerably faster than a ruptured trunk pipeline...
...Saudi Arabia has been rerouting roughly 5 million barrels per day through the system toward Yanbu on the Red Sea. The pipeline has a total pumping capacity of around 7 million bpd. Saudi Arabia previously restored that full capacity following attacks in April that temporarily knocked out approximately 700,000 bpd...
...Saudi Arabia has also previously accused Iran-backed militias of launching drones from Iraqi territory against its oil infrastructure. In July, Riyadh said drones targeting petroleum facilities in eastern Saudi Arabia and Riyadh had originated in Iraq.
With Hormuz severely disrupted and Houthi forces threatening shipping through the Red Sea, significant damage to the East-West pipeline would put Saudi Arabia’s principal alternative crude export route under unprecedented pressure."
(Excerpt) Read more at oilprice.com ...
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One would think the neighbors might get a little testy after this crap and do a little payback. inshallah!🤬
Have the Saudis ever had any reputation as being warriors, or are they just fast-riding cutthroats?
We had to save their butts from Saddam.
The Yemeni border is only 350 miles from Mecca.
I still remember not long after 9/11 when the superstation WJR in Detroit had Paul W. Smith (still a host) discussing Osama bin Laden and the killers sent to the US to hijack planes.
He upset the two people next to him in the studio as he honestly blurted out about the preparations to fight in Afghanistan: “What does he care? He’s from Saudi Arabia.”
True. And more evidence of Saudis funding the 9/11 attacks comes out every once in a while.
We need to get out of the middle east. Completely.
I suppose that we do not, because the world runs on oil.
No worries. The Saudis have the Turks and Pakis in the mutual defense alliance and together these three will wipe the floor with the Houthis, right?
Oil prices say only a few believe this:
Date Last High Low Change
Oct 26 99.69 104.46 98.53 -2.79 -2.72% As I type
Somewhere, hidden in all the speculation that passes for news these days may be the hidden truth.
Level Kharg Island...
Tell Israel to do whatever they want.
Saudi Arabia has also previously accused Iran-backed militias.
Target named use it or bow.
It costs more to maintain and deploy a trillion dollar military for decades in the Middle East than we spend on oil each year.
Cheaper to just buy the stuff, and if the seller tries to price it too high that will only induce market alternatives that ultimately reduce the earning power and leverage of the greedy seller.
We don't have a 'right' to a lower price for a product we want, that somebody else produces, just because we put a gun to their head.
Gangsterism is bad domestic and foreign policy.
it was a generous payout to only Saudi citizens and caused their country to be lazy, stupid, and under-educated. Why bust your butt in school when the government will give you enough money each year to let you life a life of luxery?
I mean that the realities of geography mean that a major part of the world’s oil supply flows through the Straight of Hormuz. You can pretend whatever you want about “sellers” and “prices”, but someone has figured out that highway robbery works, just fine.
America can turn a blind eye to piracy, sure. It is hardly a free market, though.
I'm not pretending anything. We spend more each year on the 'Department of War' to support an over three decade presence in the Middle East than we spend on oil total.
So if we stopped, and the sellers somehow managed to double their price, most Americans would on net still be paying less. More importantly, decades of higher oil prices would stimulate investment and demand in alternatives, which would inevitably shrink the proportion of energy production that relied on the Middle East.
America can turn a blind eye to piracy, sure. It is hardly a free market, though.
Market forces will do more to assuage our energy concerns than international gangsterism has or ever could.
Exactly. They should turn kharg island into a parking lot but they don’t have the balls to do so.
why did they spend billions on military hardware when they don’t plan to use it when their economic livelihood is threatened?
When is someone going to bomb the Hoo-ties into a sand dune.
Over 90% of the oil used here in the US does not go through the strait of Hormuz.
Also - we are able to refine 85% of what we use ourselves.
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