Half Saudi Aramco oil output halted by Houthi drone strikes

"The group attacked the Abqaiq and Khurais oil refineries with 10 drones, the biggest Houthi operation within Saudi territory to date ..." The Abqaiq facility is the largest in the world.

Photo: Reuters

Note that an AP report published at 7:29 pm ET, and a report from Oil Price, claim that the other Houthi target was the Khurais oil field, not processing facilities near the oil field as other reports I've seen maintain. Still a fog-of-war situation.

September 15, 2019

Houthi Drone Attacks on Saudi Aramco Oil Production Halt 5.7 Million Barrels Daily - Minister

Sputnik

Riyadh has temporarily stopped oil production at two Saudi Aramco plants that were attacked by Houthi rebels, interrupting about half of the company's total oil output, the Saudi energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said Saturday, cited by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman the said the attacks led to the interruption of an estimated 5.7 million barrels of crude or about 50 percent of the total company's production, according to SPA.

Saudi Aramco is the state-owned oil giant which operates and controls the majority of the kingdom's refinery production and oilfields.

Fires hit the Abqaiq oil refinery, a gated production facility and living community in the nation's Eastern Province, as well as an oil-processing facility near the Khurais oil field, located 100 miles east of Riyadh, according to SPA.

The armed Yemeni Houthi opposition movement claimed responsibility for the attacks.

According to a statement from the Houthi armed forces, broadcast by Almasirah TV channel, the group attacked the Abqaiq and Khurais oil refineries with 10 drones, the biggest Houthi operation within Saudi territory to date, according to a spokesperson.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told US President Donald Trump during the phone call on Saturday that "The kingdom is willing and able to confront and deal with this terrorist aggression", according to SPA.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has, meanwhile, blamed Iran for recent drone attacks on Saudi Aramco's oil fields, urging the international community "to publicly and unequivocally condemn Iran’s attacks".

Tehran is reportedly expected to comment on the issue.

Earlier, Houthi armed forces carried out a drone attack on the Shaybah oil field and refinery in Saudi Arabia, prompting a counter-attack by the Saudis on targets in northern Yemen.

Yemen has since 2015 been engulfed in a war between government forces led by exiled

President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi and the rebel Houthi movement.

A Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis at Hadi's request since March 2015. 

[END REPORT]

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