Houthi drone strike targets Saudi Aramco refinery

Yemen’s Houthi movement said it attacked Saudi Aramco’s Jazan refinery with a drone on Sunday, escalating a confrontation that has again placed the kingdom’s energy infrastructure and Red Sea shipping routes under pressure.

Saudi authorities confirmed that a fire broke out at the Aramco facility in Jazan, in the kingdom’s southwest, and said emergency teams extinguished it. No injuries were reported. Saudi officials did not immediately confirm that the blaze was caused by the Houthi operation.

The Houthis, who control much of northern Yemen including the capital Sanaa, claimed responsibility for the attack. The Iran-aligned group has stepped up military operations against Saudi targets following a period of significantly reduced cross-border hostilities.

The Jazan refinery is one of Saudi Aramco’s major downstream facilities and is designed to process as much as 400,000 barrels of crude oil a day. The complex, built as part of a wider industrial development programme in the Jazan region, produces fuels and other refined petroleum products and is integrated with a large power-generation facility.

There was no immediate indication that the fire caused a significant interruption to refinery operations or Saudi oil supplies. The absence of reported casualties and the rapid containment of the blaze suggested that the physical impact was limited, although the strike underscored the continuing vulnerability of energy installations to relatively inexpensive drones and missiles.

The operation comes amid a broader escalation between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia. The group declared a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia last month and threatened vessels carrying Saudi exports or using the kingdom’s Red Sea ports. The Houthis have since claimed attacks against Saudi-linked shipping and energy infrastructure.

Late last month, the group said it had targeted Aramco facilities in Jazan and Yanbu with ballistic and cruise missiles as well as drones. It also claimed a missile attack on the Saudi oil tanker NCC Ghazal, saying the vessel had violated its maritime restrictions.

Sunday’s developments were not confined to Saudi territory. The Houthis also launched missiles and drones at the Yemeni port of Mokha, controlled by forces aligned with Yemen’s internationally recognised authorities. Seven people were killed and 15 wounded, while port infrastructure suffered extensive damage.

Mokha lies near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the narrow waterway connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden. The strait is one of the world’s most important maritime corridors, carrying commercial cargo and energy shipments between Asia, the Middle East and Europe through the Red Sea and Suez Canal.

Renewed attacks around the waterway have raised concerns among shipping companies and insurers. Any sustained disruption could increase freight and insurance costs and encourage vessels to avoid the Red Sea in favour of the much longer route around southern Africa.

The attack on Jazan also followed Saudi Arabia’s signing of a joint defence agreement with Turkey and Pakistan on Friday. The agreement establishes a mutual-defence framework under which an armed attack against one member is regarded as an attack against all three.

Officials from the participating countries have described the arrangement as defensive and said it is not directed against any particular state. The agreement nevertheless adds another security dimension to a region already dealing with overlapping confrontations involving Iran, Israel, Gulf states and Tehran-aligned armed groups.

Saudi Arabia and the Houthis have a long history of confrontation. Riyadh led a military coalition that intervened in Yemen in 2015 after Houthi forces seized Sanaa and expanded across the country. Years of fighting produced one of the world’s gravest humanitarian crises before cross-border attacks declined sharply following a UN-mediated truce in 2022 and subsequent Saudi-Houthi negotiations.

Saudi energy infrastructure has repeatedly been targeted during the conflict. The most damaging episode occurred in September 2019, when attacks on the Abqaiq processing plant and Khurais oilfield temporarily removed about 5.7 million barrels a day of Saudi production, equivalent at the time to roughly half the kingdom’s output.

The Houthis claimed responsibility for that operation, although Saudi Arabia and the United States said the weapons came from Iran. Tehran denied involvement. The attack demonstrated how strikes on a small number of strategically important installations could have an immediate effect on international energy markets.