Satellite images show Saudi racing to bypass Houthi-damaged pipeline as exports stall

Perspective Analysis

The East-West Pipeline stretches 1,200 kilometers from Saudi oil fields near the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea export terminal at Yanbu. Last week Houthi militants struck pump stations along its length. Satellite imagery from Vantor captured on September 13 shows three of the five pump houses at station 11 reduced to rubble, with crews already laying a new provisional pipeline a few meters south of the wreckage. Station 9, roughly 200 kilometers west, also sustained damage, visible as soot on pump houses and disruption to the piping in front of them in lower-resolution Sentinel-2 images. The line normally moves up to seven million barrels per day—five million through its primary strand and two million through a secondary line repurposed for crude—accounting for about 70 percent of Saudi exports that bypass the Strait of Hormuz.

Flows through the pipeline stopped after September 11. Aramco cancelled or delayed late-September cargoes to several European refiners, and no crude has left Yanbu since that date. Storage tanks at the port hold enough crude to sustain exports for several days, after which loadings would cease unless capacity returns. Saudi crews responded with visible speed. Images from September 13 and subsequent days show more than 100 pieces of heavy equipment at station 11, lengths of new pipe scattered across the site, and earth already piled over one completed bypass section. A second bypass line appears under construction in mid-week imagery. At station 9 the bypass work looks more advanced and partially buried, suggesting some pre-planned contingency measures were already in place before the strikes.

Analysts tracking the outage reached differing conclusions on its duration. ING Bank analysts stated that plenty of uncertainty remains over the extent of damage and the length of the shutdown, with prices likely to stay supported until clarity emerges. ANZ Bank strategist Daniel Hynes noted UK officials fear the line could stay offline for six weeks. Restoration work could take three to five weeks, according to regional officials cited by the Associated Press. US Energy Secretary Chris Wright offered a shorter timeline, telling CNBC the interruption would be short and limited to days, and that Riyadh was exploring alternative routes through the Strait of Hormuz with US military assistance.

Oil prices moved in two phases. They rose sharply earlier in the week on the initial reports of halted loadings at Yanbu. They then fell for three consecutive sessions. Brent futures dropped 1.12 percent to 103.65 dollars per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate fell 0.85 percent to 101.04 dollars. Reports indicated that Saudi efforts to restore roughly half the pipeline’s capacity within days, combined with additional crude offered to Asian buyers through ship-to-ship transfers off Oman, contributed to the easing. Brent is now on track for its first weekly decline in three weeks.

Morocco’s foreign minister Nasser Bourita used a UN Security Council Arria-formula meeting on maritime security to restate Rabat’s absolute solidarity with Saudi Arabia. He condemned the Houthi attacks, including an attempted drone strike on Mecca intercepted by Saudi air defenses before it reached the city’s restricted airspace. Bourita linked the incident to broader threats to international waterways from non-state actors and called for rapid reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and a solution for the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

The accounts diverge most sharply on the expected length of the disruption and on what matters most about the event. The German WirtschaftsWoche article centers the satellite evidence of physical destruction and the visible scale of the repair effort, framing the work as a race to protect consumer fuel prices. The Hellenic Shipping News piece, drawing on shipping-industry sources, stresses the risk of an indefinite severance and the resulting uncertainty for European refiners whose cargoes have already been cancelled. In contrast, the Yemeni Almontasaf article foregrounds the three-session price decline and the reports of Saudi progress toward restoring half capacity, presenting the market reaction as evidence that immediate supply fears are receding. Al Riyadh similarly highlights the 2 percent drop in oil prices amid calming supply concerns. The Moroccan Morocco World News piece contains none of this operational detail and instead records the diplomatic statement of solidarity and the condemnation of attacks on Mecca.

These differences are not cosmetic. A reader limited to the German or Greek reporting would expect prolonged export shortfalls and sustained upward pressure on prices. A reader limited to the Yemeni or Saudi domestic coverage would see the episode as already moving toward resolution through rapid restoration and market adjustment. The Moroccan account supplies the alliance context but offers no information on whether the pipeline can actually resume flows on any timeline.

The physical damage and the ongoing bypass construction are corroborated across independent reporting chains that include commercial satellite imagery and analyst commentary. The price decline for three sessions is likewise recorded in multiple market-focused pieces. The US assessment of a days-long outage stands in explicit tension with the multi-week forecasts from ING, ANZ, and the regional officials cited by the Associated Press; both cannot be accurate. Morocco’s statement of solidarity is carried in a single outlet in this set and reflects Rabat’s consistent alignment with Riyadh on regional security matters.