Saudi Arabia’s Oil ‘Lifeline’ Was Attacked. Here’s What to Know.

A drone attack from Iraq forced Saudi Arabia to close its East-West pipeline, the kingdom said, threatening a key workaround to Iran’s Persian Gulf blockade. Ismaeel Naar reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Aaron Boxerman from Tel Aviv. Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s biggest oil producers, on Friday said it had shut down a vital oil pipeline as a precautionary measure following a drone attack from Iraqi territory. The infrastructure, known as the East-West pipeline, is key to Saudi Arabia’s ability to circumvent the Strait of Hormuz — the Persian Gulf waterway that Iran blockaded after the U.S.-Israeli attack in late February, throttling global oil exports. The targeting of the East-West pipeline showed that even alternatives to the strait can be disrupted if Iran and its proxies expand their attacks, exposing another vulnerability in efforts to restore the flow of oil to world markets and bring down energy prices.

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