The Yemeni Houthis claimed a fresh series of attacks on Saudi targets, including oil infrastructure: two refineries and a facility at the Abqaiq oil field.
The Houthis struck the Ras Tanura refinery and the Rabigh refinery, the Houthis’ spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a post on X, plus “the Aramco facility in Buqayq”. Saree claimed success in all the latest attacks, which also included the King Fahd International Airport in Dammam and the King Khalid Airport in Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia has not confirmed the attacks or their impact on the facilities targeted. The attack on the Ras Tanura refinery would be the second this week, after on Tuesday reports emerged of a fire at the facility that the Saudi authorities said was quickly contained. The Ras Tanura refinery has a capacity of 550,000 barrels daily.
The Houthis have also claimed an attack on Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline, which the kingdom has used to redirect crude exports from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz. The pipeline resumed operations in September following a shutdown caused by drone attacks, with Saudi Arabia reporting that flows had recovered to 5.8 million barrels per day by October 6. The kingdom has also relied on tanker movements through Hormuz and ship-to-ship transfers to maintain its crude exports.
Saudi Arabia has not confirmed any attacks on the oil pipeline, which was down for two weeks in September following drone attacks that damaged pumping stations and halted loadings of crude oil cargoes at the Yanbu port on the Red Sea.
The Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia have become a major driver for oil prices in the last two months as the group keeps escalating and the Saudis try to contain the fallout from the attacks. Earlier this week, the internationally recognized Yemeni government called on the UN Security Council to adopt “deterrent and punitive measures” against the Houthis over repeated attacks on Aden International Airport in Yemen, Al Jazeera reported earlier today.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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