Riyadh:
Saudi Arabia’s oil giant Aramco’s SAMREF refinery in the Red Sea port of Yanbu has been hit in an aerial strike after similar attacks on energy facilities in Qatar and the UAE in response to US-Israeli attacks on Iranian energy installations, according to a report by the news agency Reuters.
The key energy facility –a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and ExxonMobil– received minimal impact in the attack, the report said, quoting an industry source.
The attack followed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s evacuation warning to several oil facilities across Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, including SAMREF.
Saudi Aramco has not issued any statement on the attack so far.
Attack Threaten Global Oil Supply
The attack threatens the global oil supply, as Yanbu Port has been one of two major export outlets for crude oil out of Gulf Arab countries since Iran effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz after the war erupted late last month. The strait, a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman, normally carries a fifth of the world’s oil supply.
The other major export outlet is the United Arab Emirates’ port of Fujairah, which has also come under a series of attacks that suspended operations there. It was not immediately clear whether loadings were operational on Thursday.
The greater Gulf region, which includes Iraq and Iran, produces 31 per cent of the global oil supply and 8 to 17 per cent of global gas production. With the Strait of Hormuz under Iran’s chokehold, the supply has been severely affected, leading to an emerging energy crisis.
Iran’s Attack On Gulf Nations
Tehran’s retaliatory attacks followed Israeli strikes on Iran’s South Pars gas field in a major escalation in the war in the Middle East. On Wednesday, QatarEnergy said Iranian missile attacks on Ras Laffan, the site of Qatar’s core LNG processing operations, caused “extensive damage”.
On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia also said it intercepted and destroyed four ballistic missiles launched toward Riyadh, and the UAE halted operations at its Habshan gas facility after a drone interception.
Following that, Riyadh threatened that it reserves the right to act militarily against Iran, and any trust with Tehran has been shattered. In the harshest comments to come out of the Gulf kingdom in nearly three weeks of war, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan accused Iran of premeditated hostile actions against its neighbours, both directly and via an array of regional proxies, which he urged Tehran to rein in.
