Saudi Arabia activates desert oil pipeline

RIYADH: Faced with an unprecedented crisis in shipping its oil to clients overseas, Saudi Arabia is moving rapidly to activate a decades-old contingency plan — pumping millions of gallons across vast tracts of desert to reach tankers on the Red Sea.

With the vital Strait of Hormuz all but closed, the region’s petroleum-exporting monarchies are facing a potentially disastrous situation as Iran targets energy ins­tallations, storage capacity fills, and production is throttled due to the shipping paralysis caused by the Middle East war.

The Gulf has been battered by Iranian attacks in retaliation for the US-Israeli strikes that sparked the conflict, with Tehran targeting both US assets in the region and civilian infrastructure alike.

To help manage the fiasco, Saudi Arabia is ramping up the use of the Petroline, its east-west pipeline bisecting the kingdom, Saudi state energy giant Aramco said during an earnings call this week.

Petroline ramps up activity to bypass Hormuz blockage

Petroline ramps up activity to bypass Hormuz blockage

“While we have faced disruptions in the past, this one by far is the biggest crisis the region’s oil and gas industry has faced,” Aramco CEO and president Amin H. Nasser said, warning of “catastrophic consequences for the world’s oil markets the longer the disruption goes on”.

The CEO said the company was working hard to increase flows to the Petroline in the coming days, with the infrastructure’s capacity reported to be an estimated seven million barrels a day.

The 750-mile........

© Dawn Business