The world’s largest oil processing facility and a major oilfield in Saudi Arabia got into fire and in a series of targeted attacks because of drones, according to the Kingdom’s interior ministry.
Viral video footage posted online showed flames and smoke appearing from the key sites at Buqyaq and Khurais after the assaults were launched early on Saturday morning.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who have been executing a five-year war with the kingdom, claimed responsibility for the attacks and ten drones were used according to them.
The group’s military spokesman Yahia Sarie, in a televised address on Al Masirah TV, warned of further action if the dispute in Yemen continues. “The only option for the Saudi government is to stop attacking us,” he added.
However, there were no injuries reported but the incident is likely to intensify anxieties across the Persian Gulf, given that Iran has been accused of supporting the revolutionary group by the US, UN and Saudi Arabia.
The kingdom’s interior ministry said in a statement that the fires were under control and an investigation into the attack was on process.
السيطرة على حريقين في معملين تابعين لشركة أرامكو بمحافظة بقيق وهجرة خريص نتيجة استهدافهما بطائرات بدون طيار "درون" ، والجهات المختصة تباشر التحقيق في ذلك.
— وزارة الداخلية (@MOISaudiArabia) September 14, 2019
The state-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco, described its Abqaig oil processing facility in Buqyaq, which is around 200 miles northeast of the capital Riyadh, as “the largest crude oil stabilisation plant in the world”. Up to seven million barrels of crude oil a day can be processed as per the estimations.
Earlier it has been targeted by militants, including a failed suicide bomber mission by Al Qaida in February 2006.
The Khurais oil field is believed to produce over one million barrels of crude oil a day and has estimated reserves of over 20 billion barrels of oil.
A possible suspicion immediately fell on the Houthi rebels after the attacks, who have been fighting the Saudis in Yemen since March 2015 and held the capital Sanaa.
Houthi drones had struck Saudi Arabia’s Shaybah oil field in August, which produces around one million barrels of crude oil a day near the border with the United Arab Emirates.
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