Saudi Arabia’s SATORP refinery, jointly owned by Aramco and TotalEnergies, was shut down after one of two refining units was damaged by incidents earlier this week, the French supermajor said in an update to the market on Friday.
The SATORP site was affected by incidents that occurred during the night of April 7 to 8, causing damage to one of the refinery’s two processing trains, TotalEnergies said today.
“No casualties were reported. As a safety precaution, the units were shut down. An assessment of the consequences for the refinery’s operations is currently underway,” said the French group, which owns 37.5% in the refinery.
Saudi state oil giant Aramco holds the other 62.5% of the refinery, whose total processing capacity is 460,000 barrels per day (bpd). SATORP is located in the city of Jubail in eastern Saudi Arabia.
The official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) confirmed late on Thursday that several energy facilities, including the SATORP refinery, had halted operations due to recent attacks.
“Important energy facilities in the Kingdom have recently been subjected to multiple attacks, including oil and gas production, transportation, and refining facilities, as well as petrochemical facilities and the electricity sector in Riyadh, the Eastern Province, and Yanbu Industrial City,” the press agency reported, citing an official source at the Saudi Ministry of Energy.
The attacks included one at the pumping stations on the East-West Pipeline, leading to a loss of approximately 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) in throughput. The pipeline has been Saudi Arabia’s main route for crude exports since the Strait of Hormuz was effectively blocked to traffic at the beginning of the war.
The attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure have also extended to major refining facilities, including SATORP in Jubail, the Ras Tanura refinery, the SAMREF refinery in Yanbu, and Riyadh refinery, directly affecting exports of refined products to global markets, Saudi Arabia said.
The hits to energy facilities in Saudi Arabia are reducing the potential to export crude and fuels even if the Strait of Hormuz re-opens to some semblance of normal traffic. As of early Friday, Iran remains in control of the critical oil and LNG chokepoint, where transits continue to be highly selective and subject to prior Iranian approval.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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