Saudi Arabia says fire extinguished at Aramco facility in Jizan
No casualties were reported after the flames broke out early on Sunday, the Saudi Energy Ministry says. A fire reported at a facility belonging to
No casualties were reported after the flames broke out early on Sunday, the Saudi Energy Ministry says. A fire reported at a facility belonging to Saudi Arabian state oil giant Aramco has been extinguished, authorities say. The blaze broke out early on Sunday at a site in the coastal city of Jizan, the Saudi Ministry of Energy wrote in a statement on X. No casualties were reported. “The competent authorities are completing the necessary procedures to deal with the incident,” the ministry added. It did not say what caused the fire.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi armed group claimed it carried out an attack on the facility, located on the Red Sea near its border, the latest in a series of Houthi claims of strikes targeting Saudi oil sites. A military spokesman for the Houthi led government in the capital Sanaa, Yahya Saree, wrote on X the group “succeeded in targeting the Aramco refinery in Jizan with a drone, and the strike was precise”. He said the attack came in response to Saudi Arabia’s “breach of the airspace of the provinces of Saada and Hajjah” with drones.
There was no immediate comment on the claim from Riyadh. Al Jazeera has contacted the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Houthis last month claimed attacks on Aramco facilities in Jizan. The Houthis also said they targeted oil installations in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia’s principal west coast export gateway. Aramco chief Amin Nasser said last week that recent attacks on the company’s facilities had caused some production interruptions but that he was confident operations could be restored quickly. He said the attacks had no material operational or financial impact. The attacks have added to growing strains on a 2022 truce in the war between the Houthis and Yemen’s internationally recognised government, backed by Saudi Arabia.
The Houthis, which took control of the capital, Sanaa, in 2014, also declared a blockade on Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea last month, threatening shipping through the Bab al-Mandeb strait. Saudi authorities have also blamed Iran-aligned armed groups in Iraq for attacks on its oil facilities. On Friday, Riyadh signed a defence pact with Turkiye and Pakistan amid rising regional tensions from the US-Israel war on Iran.
The BriefWire