Page 11 - DMEA Week 15 2021

DMEA REFINING DMEA

Aramco refineries come

under attack again

MIDDLE EAST YEMEN’S Houthi militia this week claimed The attack follows a late March strike on the
another strike on Saudi Arabian oil and military Riyadh refinery, which caused a fire, which was
infrastructure in one of its biggest attacks to date. quickly extinguished.
Launching 17 drones and ballistic missiles, While Sarea said that the projectiles “hit the
the group claimed explosions at Aramco facili- targets successfully”, neither Aramco nor the
ties at Jeddah and Jubail as well as military sites Saudi government have commented on the
in Khamis Mushait and Jazan. attacks, but state-run Ekhbariya TV said the sev-
The Houthis struck at dawn in a retaliatory eral armed drones and at least one ballistic mis-
move for the Saudi-led military campaign in sile had been intercepted en route to the Jazan
Yemen just one day after Saudi Aramco had area where a new facility came into operation
announced a $12.4bn deal for the lease of its oil earlier this year. In mid-February, Aramco’s Pres-
pipeline network. ident and CEO Amin Nasser said that the Jazan
Houthi spokesman Brigadier General Yahya unit was “on-stream” and running at around 50%
Sarea said that the refineries were struck by 10 of its 400,000-bpd capacity.
Samad-3 drones while five drones and two bal- Also in March, the Saudi Press Agency noted
listic missiles hit the military facilities. that “bomb-laden [unmanned aerial vehicles
Jubail is home to wholly owned 305,000-bar- (UAVs)] launched by terrorist, Iran-backed
rel per day (bpd) Saudi Aramco Jubail Refinery Houthi militia” had been destroyed before they
(SASREF) facility as well as the 440,000-bpd reached Khamis Mushait.
Saudi Aramco Total Refining and Petrochemical It also published videos on its social media
(SATORP) joint venture with France’s Total. Jed- pages showing the destruction of projectiles it
dah hosts a products distribution plant with Ara- said were targeting “civilians and civilian objects
mco’s refinery there decommissioned in 2017. in the Kingdom”.™

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