Written by: Suhaib Shams
Saudi Arabia announced on Monday that the strategic east–west oil pipeline known as "Petroline" was targeted in the Madinah region, west of the Kingdom, leading to a limited fire that emergency teams were able to control and extinguish without any recorded injuries or fatalities, while confirming that the pipeline's operational processes continue unaffected.
Incident Details
The official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) quoted an official source in the Ministry of Energy saying that the targeting caused a fire, following which specialized technical teams began securing the site and verifying its safety, noting that no injuries occurred and that oil pumping through the line continues normally. The Ministry did not disclose the nature of the targeting or the entity behind it.
Background on the pipeline and previous developments
The "Petroline" extends for a distance of about 1,200 kilometers, connecting Abqaiq in the eastern Kingdom to Yanbu on the Red Sea coast, with a transport capacity reaching about 7 million barrels per day. The incident comes less than a week after Aramco announced the start of preliminary engineering works to expand the pipeline. The pipeline had been subject to drone attacks last September, which Saudi Arabia said originated from Iraq, leading to its temporary closure before pumping was gradually resumed.
