A social media account has posted satellite thermal imagery it says shows a possible fresh strike on Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline, also known as Petroline. Neither Aramco, the Saudi energy ministry nor any wire service has confirmed the claim, which follows a week of confirmed Houthi attacks elsewhere in the kingdom.
An account presenting an independent analysis of satellite thermal data says it detected a fire radiative power reading above 70 megawatts along the East-West pipeline's route. The account argues the signal is too intense to be routine flaring or maintenance, pointing to a heat signature that persisted for roughly eight hours based on separate satellite passes.
No official confirmation yet
The account also argues the heat sources were clustered along a stretch of only a few kilometres, which it says is inconsistent with pump stations that are normally spaced well apart. Still, this is one analyst's reading of public satellite data, not an assessment from a government agency, Aramco or an established energy intelligence provider. Similar thermal anomalies have been misread as attacks before when the underlying cause was industrial activity rather than sabotage.
Until an official source or a wire service corroborates the claim, it remains market chatter rather than confirmed news. Any price reaction tied directly to the report should be read as speculative positioning around an unverified data point.
Houthi attacks set the backdrop
The claim gains some plausibility because of recent, confirmed events. Just days earlier, strikes on facilities in the kingdom's south wounded more than 70 people and forced a halt to operations at some energy sites, according to Saudi authorities. The East-West pipeline itself, which carries crude roughly 1,200 kilometres from the Eastern Province to the Red Sea port of Yanbu as an alternative to Strait of Hormuz shipments, has also been hit in confirmed attacks before, including as recently as April this year.
Traders will likely want to see Aramco, the Saudi energy ministry or independent satellite-monitoring services weigh in before treating the oil market claim as anything more than unverified chatter.
Source: investingLive
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