Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline came under attack on Monday in the Medina region, the Energy Ministry said, causing a limited fire that emergency crews put out. The ministry reported no casualties and no disruption to operations. The line is the kingdom’s main route for moving crude around the Strait of Hormuz, carrying Saudi oil west to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, which handled the bulk of the kingdom’s export growth in October.
The attack landed the same day surveys showed OPEC production still rebuilding from the war. A Reuters survey put the group’s October output up 1.38 million barrels per day at 22.87 million barrels per day, about 90 percent of the pre-war rate; the 11 members surveyed pumped 25.48 million barrels per day in February, the last month before the war disrupted exports and production across the Middle East. A separate Bloomberg survey put October output at 22.8 million barrels per day, up 930,000 barrels per day from September and 88 percent of February levels, with Saudi Arabia raising production by 970,000 barrels per day to 9.2 million, still about 800,000 barrels per day below early-year rates. Iraq added 140,000 barrels per day to reach 4.15 million and Kuwait added 130,000 to reach 2 million, while Iran’s output fell 120,000 barrels per day to 1.9 million, its lowest in Bloomberg survey data going back to 1989, with no tankers seen at Kharg Island since late August.
OPEC members are reviewing how much crude each country can technically produce ahead of a November 29 ministerial meeting that will set 2027 output targets, after the group held quotas steady for October and November and extended the hold to December.