Although, Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group said it attacked the two plants at the heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry on Saturday, the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, has put the blame squarely on Iran.
The predawn attacks had knocked out more than half of the kingdom’s output, in a move expected to send oil prices soaring and increase tension in the Middle East.
Pompeo, writing on his Twitter handle, said, there was “no evidence the attacks came from Yemen.”
“Amid all the calls for de-escalation, Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply,” Pompeo said.
Fires broke out at two facilities of Saudi Aramco, including the Abqaiq oil processing facility in Buqyaq, “the largest crude oil stabilisation plant in the world.”
The other facility hit was the oil field at Khurais. They were all hit by drones, the Saudi Interior Ministry said.
Saturday’s attack is the latest part of a series of attacks on oil infrastructure, including the sabotage of pumping stations along the East-West pipeline, and attacks on oil tankers off Fujairah and close to the Strait of Hormuz.
Earlier in August, Saudi Aramco’s Shaybah gas plant was reportedly targeted by drones, Yemen’s Houthi rebels had claimed responsibility for the attacks.
A Saudi-led coalition is fighting the Yemeni rebels which it accuses of being “Iranian proxies”.
The attacks will cut the kingdom’s output by 5.7 million barrels per day (bpd), according to a statement from state-run oil company Saudi Aramco, or more than 5% of global oil supply, VOA reported.
The strikes followed earlier cross-border attacks on Saudi oil installations and on oil tankers in Persian Gulf waters, but these were the most brazen yet, temporarily crippling much of the nation’s production capacity.
Saudi Arabia is the world’s biggest exporter, shipping more than 7 million barrels of oil to global destinations every day, and for years has served as the supplier of last resort to markets.
