Satellite images reveal severe damage that led to a vital Saudi oil pipeline stopping work

Satellite images show that a major oil pipeline in Saudi Arabia was severely damaged in a strike last week. Experts told BBC Fact-Finding that repairing these damages may take more than a month, which could push oil prices to rise further.

The picture shows that the most severe damage occurred at a pumping station along the East-West Pipeline, which Saudi Arabia has increasingly relied on to export crude oil through the Red Sea instead of the Strait of Hormuz, where ships were attacked by Iran and the United States during the six-month war between them.

The Saudi government accused Iranian-backed militias in Iraq of carrying out the strike on the pipeline, which came days after renewed missile and drone attacks on southwestern Saudi Arabia, launched by the Yemeni Houthi Ansar Allah group, also supported by Iran. Saudi Arabia responded by launching strikes on areas controlled by the Houthis in western Yemen.

New satellite images also show damage to the King Khalid Air Base in Saudi Arabia, following a strike launched by the Houthis last week.

The Saudi government said on Tuesday that it would respond "firmly" to Houthi attacks.

The Houthi group has been waging a civil war for years against the Yemeni forces loyal to the government and supported by Saudi Arabia, but it has intensified its military campaign in recent weeks.

Last week, the group took control of large new areas along the southwestern coast of Yemen, including areas overlooking the vital Bab al-Mandab waterway, which strengthened its ability to impose the blockade it declared on Saudi shipping traffic.

The price of a barrel of oil has jumped since Saudi Arabia announced on Friday the closure of the pipeline as a precautionary measure. The price of Brent crude oil reached $108 (£80) per barrel during Tuesday’s trading, a slight decrease from $109.80 on Monday.

Experts from Kpler, a company specializing in trade information, said that closing the pipeline could reduce oil supplies by up to 3.6 million barrels per day, equivalent to about 3.6 percent of global demand.

“Based on new information we have received, it may take between four and six weeks to repair the damage to the pipeline, given the availability of spare parts and the disruption of supply chains,” said Humayun Falakshahi, head of crude oil analysis at Kpler.

Anne-Sophie Corbeau of the Center for Global Energy Policy at Columbia University said pipelines are “easy targets” and the recent strikes represent a “very important signal” that alternatives used to avoid passage through the Strait of Hormuz “may not be very useful, because they are destructible.”

The Houthis targeted other Saudi oil facilities with drones and missiles, which led to the suspension of some operational operations.

The attacks also targeted military bases. New satellite images, taken on Monday, show damage to the Saudi King Khalid Air Base near Khamis Mushait, which the Houthis said they targeted with ballistic missiles and drones last week, after it was used to launch air strikes on Yemen.

It appears that at least three hangars or aircraft shelters were damaged at the base of the Royal Saudi Air Force, where American-made F-15 fighters are stationed.

The military coalition of Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia, which is fighting the Houthis, said on Tuesday that attacks launched by the Houthis with missiles and drones resulted in the injury of 13 people, and targeted what the coalition described as “civilian objects.”