Saudi pipeline that bypasses Hormuz shuts after drone attack, and Trump points at Iran

Saudi Arabia has shut down a major oil pipeline, citing attacks on it¹. Drones launched from Iraq struck the line and set it on fire, Euronews reported². The Australian Financial Review described the route plainly in its headline: the Saudi oil pipeline that bypasses Hormuz has been shut after attacks⁶.

President Donald Trump said Iran was most likely responsible for the attack on the pipeline⁴. Speaking during a meeting at Farmleigh House in Dublin, Ireland, he said Iran was probably behind it, and added that the Houthis had told Washington they did not want to fight³. Spectrum News tied the shutdown to the wider Iran war and to the strain already bearing on the Strait of Hormuz¹.

Why it matters to investors

The East-West pipeline is crucial for shipping Saudi oil to the Red Sea, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz². CBS News described it as a critical way for Saudi crude to circumvent Hormuz⁸. By early June, Saudi Arabia had more than doubled oil exports from the Red Sea port at the pipeline’s end, according to Spectrum News¹. Losing the line removes the workaround that made a constrained Hormuz survivable for the kingdom’s exports.

The alternative route is also under pressure. Oil loaded on tankers at Yanbu could head out of the Red Sea through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and then east to Asia, which had helped the Saudis maintain flows⁹. Oil prices surged on Thursday as the Houthis seized a strategic coastal city in Yemen, pushing them closer to Bab al-Mandab, an artery for global trade and Saudi oil exports⁵.

What to watch

Riyadh has been pressing for a harder American response. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called Trump twice on Thursday urging him to launch strikes against the Houthis as the group closed in on the chokepoint, two US officials told Axios⁵. Trump declined, and US officials stressed that the administration has no plans to intervene directly against the Houthis for now⁵.

Saudi Arabia is acting on its own account instead: it struck Mocha airport, held by the Iran-backed Houthis⁷. With Iran already disrupting traffic through Hormuz, Houthi control of Bab al-Mandab would hand Tehran a further point of leverage over shipping⁵. The immediate questions are how long repairs to the pipeline take, whether attacks on it continue, and whether Washington’s position on direct intervention holds^1,3.