Page 11 - MEOG Week 10 2021

MEOG POLICY MEOG

Aramco’s downstream
and midstream
facilities.

Source: Aramco Prospectus

Saudi Arabia, targeting the Aramco facilities as “civilians and civilian objects in the Kingdom”.
well as military targets in Dammam, Asir and The attacks come amid a ramping-up of ten-
Jazan. sions between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia,
Ras Tanura and Dhahran are heavily pro- with several drone strikes having taken place
tected, with numerous defence companies hav- over the past 10 days. Between February 27
ing been contracted to provide hi-tech solutions, and March 6, the SPA reported that a total of 22
including Patriot missile systems and drone “bomb-laden” UAVs and three ballistic missiles
tracking and prevention systems. had been fired at targets in Saudi, including in
Meanwhile, at 5:19pm local time, the SPA Riyadh, Jazan and Khamis Mushait, injuring
said that the Royal Saudi Air Defense had inter- seven civilians including one child.
cepted Houthi attacks before reached their Meanwhile, the Houthis claimed that the
intended targets. March 4 attack on Jeddah had hit oil-related
The US Embassy in Saudi Arabia advised infrastructure.
caution from American citizens citing reports of In November, the militia carried out attacks
missile attacks and explosions in the tri-city area to target oil facilities at Jazan, near the border
of Dhahran, Dammam and Al-Khobar. with Yemen, and further up the coast at Jeddah.
Meanwhile, the SPA also noted that a The previous largest attack came in Septem-
“bomb-laden [unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)] ber 2019, when a drone swarm hit the Abqaiq
launched by terrorist, Iran-backed Houthi mili- and Khurais facilities in Eastern Province,
tia” had been destroyed before it reached its tar- reducing oil flows by 5.7mn bpd, and led to an
get, the city of Khamis Mushait. It also published international investigation which suggested that
videos on its social media pages showing the the drones and rockets had “probably” been pro-
destruction of projectiles it said were targeting vided by Iran.™

Aramco HQ in Dhahran

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