Houthis Attack Saudi Arabian Tankers At The Red Sea

Houthis Attack Saudi Arabian Tankers At The Red Sea

To understand why this is such a strategic move by the Houthis. You only need to look at the map of the East-West pipeline and why the pipeline was built. With the Houthis support of Iran. This closes down one of the exit plans for oil through the Red Sea.

The East-West Pipeline

also known as the Petroline, is a 746-mile-long (1,201 km) pipeline in Saudi Arabia that runs from the Abqaiq oil field in the Eastern Province (near Bahrain and Qatar on the Persian Gulf coast) across the width of the Arabian Peninsula, to Yanbu at the Red Sea. It was built during the Iran–Iraq War in the 1980s to allow Saudi oil exports to bypass the tanker war taking place in the Strait of Hormuz.

Pipeline description

The pipeline has two pipes, one 56 inches (142 cm) in diameter and the other, originally for natural gas liquids, 48 inches (122 cm) in diameter.

In 2018, they had a capacity of 5 million barrels per day (790,000 m3/d) (BPD) during normal operation. In 2026, its full capacity was 7 million BPD when accompanying natural gas liquids pipelines were converted to carry crude oil. Saudi Aramco’s East-West Pipeline links oil production facilities in the Eastern Province with Yanbu’ on the west coast, providing export flexibility between the kingdom’s east and west coasts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East%E2%80%93West_Crude_Oil_Pipeline

Red Sea Under Attack