Satellite imagery shows large plume of smoke along Saudi East-West pipeline route - Anadolu Ajansı

Satellite imagery showed a large plume of black smoke while NASA data recorded unusual thermal activity along Saudi Arabia’s strategic East-West oil pipeline route, as researchers identified emergency flaring at sites in the area.

Sentinel-3 imagery from Thursday showed black smoke rising from an area south of Medina in the vicinity of the pipeline.

NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) also recorded clustered thermal anomalies along the corridor.

NASA says FIRMS detects active fires and thermal anomalies using satellite observations, but cautions that such detections can result from fire, hot smoke, agriculture or other sources and have limited accuracy.

Researchers with the Earth Observation Group at the Colorado School of Mines’ Payne Institute said their analysis found that most of the detected thermal activity occurred at previously known flare sites rather than at new locations along the pipeline.

At least two known flares entered an apparent “emergency” operating regime, with sharp increases in the volume of gas being burned, the researchers said.

At one site, the estimated gas flow rate rose to about 0.32-0.44 billion cubic meters per year on Friday, while combustion temperatures remained within the site’s previously observed range.

There has been no confirmation from Saudi authorities that the pipeline was struck or physically damaged.

The East-West pipeline carries crude from Saudi Arabia’s eastern oil-producing region to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, allowing exports to bypass the Strait of Hormuz.