Saudi Arabia Loses Patience as Red Sea Terminal and Refinery are Targeted
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry spoke out on Thursday, March 19, saying that any “trust with Tehran has been shattered” after reporting that the capital of Riyadh, along with the critical Yanbu oil terminal on the Red Sea and the neighboring refinery, had all been targeted. The state-owned oil company Aramco has been rushing to increase exports from Yanbu to offset its lost capacity on the Persian Gulf.
The Ministry of Defense confirmed that a drone “crashed in the SAMREF refinery.” It said that a damage assessment was underway, while images circulating online showed a large plume of smoke rising from the facility. Reuters is quoting sources, however, saying that there was “minimal impact” on the refinery. A joint project between Aramco and ExxonMobil, it is located adjacent to the Yanbu port and is served by a 750-mile pipeline stretching across the Saudi desert from the main oil fields at Abqaiq.
Security consultants had warned last week that the port could be targeted either by Iran or its proxies, the Houthis. The Ministry of Defense blamed a drone for the damage at the SAMREF while saying they had also intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched toward the Yanbu port.
It is the first confirmed attack on the facilities. Reuters reported that the port was briefly evacuated but that operations were quickly resumed.
Attacks on the Eastern Region have become a daily occurrence for Saudi Arabia, with reports saying there have been hundreds of missile and drone attacks. Saudi Arabia claims to have destroyed most of the attacks, but today, the air raid alerts were triggered in Riyadh for the first time.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince ?Faisal bin Farhan reportedly told the media at the conference, “We reserve the right to take military actions if deemed necessary." He called the attacks from Iran “premeditated hostile actions.” He said the trust had been shattered, but so far, Saudi Arabia and neighboring countries have only mounted defensive actions despite having well-equipped military capabilities.
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The targeting of Yanbu and SAMREF came after Donald Trump lashed out at Iran after it attacked the Qatar gas infrastructure. Trump demanded that Iran stop these attacks or threatened that the United States would finish what he said Israel started and destroy Iran’s South Pars gas operations. Last week, Trump threatened to return to Kharg Island and destroy the oil infrastructure after saying the U.S. had strategically limited its strikes to the military operations on Kharg Island.
Saudi Arabia has reportedly more than doubled oil shipments at Yanbu since the start of March. The terminal typically handled between 1 and 1.5 million barrels a day, with the International Energy Agency reporting that by March 9, volume was approaching 5.9 million barrels a day moving through the pipeline. Aramco has said around 5 million barrels would be for export, and the remainder of the volume would go to SAMREF for processing. The pipeline is believed to be able to move as much as 7 million barrels a day at maximum capacity.
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