Houthis claim drone attack on Saudi Aramco’s Jazan refinery

Jazan, Saudi Arabia. Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said they attacked Saudi Aramco’s Jazan refinery with a drone on Sunday, two days after Saudi Arabia signed a defence pact with Turkey and Pakistan. Saudi Arabia’s energy ministry said a fire at the refinery was extinguished and no injuries were reported.

Refinery fire

The Saudi energy ministry did not state the cause of the fire, saying relevant authorities were completing procedures to deal with the incident.

The refinery, in southwestern Saudi Arabia near the border with Yemen, processes 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day. It also produces gasoline and ultra-light sulphur diesel.

Houthi military spokesperson Yahay Saree said in a post on X that the group had targeted the facility with a drone. The Houthis have previously struck Aramco sites in Jazan and Yanbu on the Red Sea.

Regional escalation

Iran and allied Shi’ite Muslim armed groups have been firing on Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states and blockading their energy shipments since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, according to the report.

Aramco chief Amin Nasser said last week that recent attacks on the company’s facilities had caused some production interruptions, but that operations could be restored quickly. He said the attacks had not had a material operational or financial impact.

Defence agreement

The escalation has disrupted global energy supplies and affected the world economy, prompting Saudi Arabia on Friday to form an alliance with Turkey and Pakistan, described as Sunni Muslim US allies.

The agreement is intended to strengthen collective deterrence against aggression and states that an armed attack against any of the three countries would be regarded as an attack on all of them.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the alliance was not directed against Iran or any other country, but was a general pledge to support the security of the three allies.

Previous damage

On July 27, Aramco shut the Jazan refinery after an attack by Houthi militants damaged its Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle complex and tank farm area, according to a note by consultancy IIR seen by Reuters.