Oil flows through Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline were reported halted after a fresh strike on a pumping station near Khurais, east of Riyadh, according to a source in the kingdom’s energy sector cited by AFP. The Houthis said they had carried out missile and drone attacks on Aramco sites in the Riyadh area and at Khurais. Satellite imagery reviewed by Misbar showed smoke near an Aramco facility at Khurais that was not visible in earlier images from 3 October.
Accounts of the operational impact diverged. The energy-sector source told AFP the station had not been hit before, that damage was substantial and that the line had stopped again. Reuters, citing a separate source, reported that flows had not been disrupted. Saudi authorities had not immediately issued a detailed public assessment of this strike.
The line runs about 1,200 kilometres from the eastern oil fields to the Yanbu terminal on the Red Sea. It has become a principal export route since the Strait of Hormuz was effectively closed earlier in the wider regional war. Commodity tracker Kpler said flows were already interrupted from 11 to 22 September after an earlier attack. The Saudi energy ministry then confirmed strikes in the Riyadh and Medina regions, injuries and a precautionary shutdown.
💥The East-West Pipeline has been hit again, say Saudi sources and satellite images
The war in Yemen enters a dangerous new phase, threatening regional energy corridors and to alter Middle Eastern security architectures
Here's an update on the latest developments
👇🛢️🇸🇦🇾🇪🇮🇷🇺🇸🧵 pic.twitter.com/sXJ1zMnItO— Francesco Sassi (@Frank_Stones) October 6, 2026
The latest strike comes as fighting in Yemen has moved onto the Red Sea coast. In September the Houthis seized Mokha and, according to Yemeni officials and the BBC, pushed onto Perim (Mayyun) in the Bab al-Mandeb, the southern gateway between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. On 5 October the internationally recognised government said Saudi-backed forces had launched an offensive, secured approaches to the strait and retaken Mokha. Reuters and AFP, citing government and military sources, reported that those forces had reached the city’s outskirts rather than fully controlling it, and that they had taken Dhubab airfield and cut a road toward Bab al-Mandeb.
Riyadh has sought wider backing as the fighting and the attacks on infrastructure have continued. Washington has held direct contacts with the Houthi authorities in Sanaa and has not expanded military support for the government offensive, according to regional reporting. On 5 October Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan activated deterrence measures under the Mecca defence arrangement signed on 7 August, including an agreement on rapid deployment of forces to the kingdom, Saudi Defence Minister Khalid bin Salman and Pakistan’s foreign ministry said.
Oil-market signals have been uneven. Saudi Arabia has been discounting crude to Asian buyers while raising prices for Europe, a split traders have read as a response to disrupted routes and uneven demand rather than a single global shock. In Pakistan, higher petrol prices and austerity measures have been linked by local officials to supply anxiety around the Red Sea and Hormuz, though those price moves also reflect domestic policy.
Whether the government offensive can hold ground near Mokha, and whether the Khurais strike has taken lasting capacity off the East-West line, remained unclear on 6 October. Both questions bear on how much Saudi crude can still move west while Hormuz stays constrained, and on how far the Mecca arrangement is drawn into the Yemen fighting.