DOMINANT ANGLE
Madrid is quantifying the oil shock: the Spanish press first notes the closure of the only alternative oil pipeline to Hormuz and the surge in the barrel price beyond $107, more so than the question of the origin of the drones.
Dominant angle identified — does not reflect unanimity of this country’s media
KEY POINTS
- 01
The Saudi Energy Ministry announced the "preemptive" closure of the East-West oil pipeline after attacks occurred "on the morning of Thursday, September 10, 2026"
- 02
The pipeline, known as Petroline, connects the Persian Gulf to the port of Yanbu over 1,200 kilometres with a maximum capacity of seven million barrels per day
- 03
The price of oil exceeded $107, which "reactivated the debt escalation" according to Expansión
ANALYSIS
Madrid, September 13, 2026. The Spanish press first focuses on the price of a barrel. Under the title "Arabia Saudí cierra su único oleoducto alternativo a Ormuz tras sufrir varios ataques", El Diario details the "precautionary" closure of the East-West pipeline, known as Petroline, decided on Friday, September 11, by the Saudi Ministry of Energy after the infrastructure was, according to the official statement, "the target of multiple attacks on the morning of Thursday, September 10, 2026". The ministry, which locates the pipeline in the regions of Riyadh and Medina, specifies that "the attacks caused several injuries, which received medical attention", without designating the origin or the perpetrators of the attack.
Expansión emphasizes the financial scope of the event: its title announces that "oil exceeds $107 and reactivates the debt escalation". The economic daily recalls that the pipeline, 1,200 kilometers long, connects the oil fields in the east of the kingdom, on the Persian Gulf, to the port of Yanbu, on the Red Sea, with a maximum capacity of seven million barrels per day. Its strategic function, the two newspapers stress, is to allow Riyadh to export its crude oil while avoiding the Strait of Hormuz. El Diario emphasizes, in its title itself, that it is the "only alternative pipeline to Hormuz" that the kingdom has, a route whose use had intensified "in the current context of tensions in the Strait of Hormuz".
The two titles, published on Friday, September 11, almost word for word repeat the statement from the Saudi Ministry: they insist on the "precautionary" nature of the closure and on the immediate mobilization of technical teams, which intervened "immediately after the attacks" to secure the infrastructure "in accordance with approved security procedures". Neither El Diario nor Expansión identifies the origin of the drones nor mentions Iraq, Baghdad, or Iran: the Spanish account remains focused on the oil mechanics - pipeline capacity, barrel price increase, indebtedness of producing states - rather than on the regional chain of responsibilities mentioned elsewhere. For the Madrid press, the event is read above all as a shock to the energy markets, in a kingdom that had strengthened this alternative route to mitigate the tensions in the Strait of Hormuz.
