An administrative building belonging to Saudi Aramco in Dhahran, in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, was hit and a limited fire broke out, the Saudi Energy Ministry said on Wednesday, as Yemen's Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition traded a further round of strikes. No injuries were reported at the Aramco building, according to Saudi authorities cited by CNN and Bloomberg. CNN reported it was not clear whether the building took a direct hit or was struck by falling debris. No disruption to oil production was reported in the sources opened for this article.
What happened in Dhahran and Riyadh overnight?
The Energy Ministry said the Dhahran building, in the city where Aramco is headquartered, was hit during a wider wave of missile and drone attacks across the kingdom, Reuters and Bloomberg reported. The Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted missiles aimed at al-Kharj, the kingdom's southern region, Dhahran and Haradh, and that shrapnel from an interception fell in a residential area of Dhahran, Bloomberg reported. Separately, debris from two intercepted missiles fell on Riyadh, injuring four people and causing limited damage to 15 homes, the state news agency SPA reported on Wednesday, citing the Civil Defense spokesperson, according to Reuters. The coalition also said it had intercepted and destroyed three cruise missiles and two drones targeting the Riyadh region and southern Saudi Arabia, CNN reported.
How does this follow Tuesday's strikes on Yemen?
The Dhahran incident came hours after the Saudi-led coalition attacked the al-Sabahah fuel station in Sanaa and other sites in Yemen on Tuesday evening, an operation the coalition said was aimed at the Houthis' missile and drone capabilities. The Houthis had named Aramco facilities — including the company's Dhahran headquarters — among the targets they warned they would strike in response, and said the Sanaa fuel-station strikes killed two civilians and injured two, CNN reported; the coalition said it had warned civilians to leave the area beforehand. Yemen's oil company said the Sanaa facility held no fuel stocks. On Tuesday the coalition had also reported intercepting a ballistic missile launched toward the Eastern Province, another toward Haradh near the Yemeni border, and three drones north of Riyadh, CNN reported.
Why does the Dhahran hit matter?
Dhahran sits at the centre of Saudi Arabia's oil economy: Aramco is headquartered there, the Eastern Province holds the kingdom's largest oil fields, and the city also hosts a petroleum-engineering university and a major air base, Bloomberg reported. The attack followed a week of Houthi ballistic missile and drone fire at Saudi Arabia, in which Riyadh's international airport was hit four times, including a Saturday strike that killed 13 people, Reuters reported. The US State Department on Tuesday expanded travel restrictions for US government personnel in the kingdom, requiring special authorisation to use any Saudi airport, CNN reported. Whether the Dhahran building was hit directly or by debris, and the full extent of the damage, had not been established in the sources opened at publication time.
This is not financial advice. The Energy Ministry's account of the Dhahran hit, the coalition's interception accounts, and the Houthis' account of civilian casualties in Sanaa are each published as the claims of the side or authority that made them. No oil-production disruption was reported in the sources opened for this article.
