Saudi Arabia oil production reduced by drone strikes

From The BBC

14th September 2019

Saudi Arabia's oil production has been severely disrupted by drone attacks on two major oil facilities run by state-owned company Aramco, reports say. Sources quoted by Reuters and WSJ said the strikes had reduced production by five million barrels a day - nearly half the kingdom's output. The fires are now under control at both facilities, Saudi state media say. A spokesman for the Houthi rebel group in Yemen said it had deployed 10 drones in the attacks. The Saudis lead a Western-backed military coalition supporting Yemen's government, while Iran backs the Houthi rebels. The Houthi spokesman, Yahya Sarea, told al-Masirah TV, which is owned by the Houthi movement and is based in Beirut, that further attacks could be expected in the future. He said Saturday's attack was one of the biggest operations the Houthi forces had undertaken inside Saudi Arabia and was carried out in "co-operation with the honourable people inside the kingdom". TV footage showed a huge blaze at Abqaiq, site of Aramco's largest oil processing plant, while a second drone attack started fires in the Khurais oilfield.

"At 04:00 (01:00 GMT), the industrial security teams of Aramco started dealing with fires at two of its facilities in Abqaiq and Khurais as a result of... drones," the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported. "The two fires have been controlled." There have been no details on the damage but AFP news agency quoted interior ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki as saying there were no casualties. Later, the SPA reported that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had told US President Donald Trump in a telephone conversation that the kingdom was "willing and able to confront and deal with this terrorist aggression". The White House said Mr Trump had offered US support to help Saudi Arabia defend itself. The US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, John Abizaid, condemned the drone attacks. "These attacks against critical infrastructure endanger civilians, are unacceptable, and sooner or later will result in innocent lives being lost," he said. United Nations envoy Martin Griffiths described the attacks as "extremely worrying" in a statement in which he called on all parties in the Yemen conflict to exercise restraint. Abqaiq is about 60km (37 miles) south-west of Dhahran in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, while Khurais, some 200km further south-west, has the country's second largest oilfield. Saudi security forces foiled an attempt by al-Qaeda to attack the Abqaiq facility with suicide bombers in 2006.

[OK. This sounds like something straight from the science-fiction novels I was reading in the 80’s and 90’s. A down at heel rebel force using advanced technology to take down an advanced nation by attacking their infrastructure as the world looks on bewildered….. You have to wonder what other non-state actors have in mind in years to come….. Better get back reading those cyberpunk novels if I want to keep ahead on the news cycle!]