Saudi Arabia has closed a key oil pipeline a day after it was attacked by Iraqi drones, as conflicts in Middle East widens.
The shut down threatens to send energy prices even higher as Saudi Arabia – the world’s largest crude oil exporter – temporarily closed the pipeline.
However, US President Donald Trump Saturday insisted ‘everything will work out just fine.’
The 745-mile pipeline running across the Arabian Peninsula had helped Saudi Arabia to bypass a shipping logjam in the Strait of Hormuz, where tanker traffic has slowed to a trickle due to the six-month war between the US and Iran.
The Saudi Energy Ministry said it had shut the pipeline as a precaution.
The line has been moving 4 million to 5 million barrels per day in recent months, amounting to 4 to 5 per cent of global supply, according to ship tracking companies and analysts.
It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the strikes.
Trump said on Saturday that everything would ‘work out just fine’ when asked whether he could help move traffic through the Strait of Hormuz in light of fresh concerns about Saudi Arabia.
The closure of the pipeline came just hours after Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi Rebels captured the strategic island of Mayun at the southern entrance to the Red Sea, opening a new front in the Iran war.
Iraq has since dismissed a military commander today in response to the attack.
