{"id":194833,"date":"2019-09-14T14:36:41","date_gmt":"2019-09-14T14:36:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=194833"},"modified":"2019-09-17T06:21:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-17T06:21:00","slug":"major-saudi-arabia-oil-facilities-hit-by-houthi-drone-strikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=194833","title":{"rendered":"Major Saudi Arabia oil facilities hit by Houthi drone strikes"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\">Associated Press \u2013 Sept 14, 2019<\/h1>\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sz58GyPoY3o\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n&#8212;<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for a drone attack on the world\u2019s largest oil processing facility in<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong> <a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/saudiarabia\">Saudi Arabia<\/a><\/strong><\/span> which is vital to global energy supplies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The attacks on the processor and a major oilfield, operated by Saudi Aramco, on early Saturday sparked a huge fire, the kingdom\u2019s interior ministry said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">According to Reuters, threes sources claimed the assault had disrupted output and exports, with one source claiming 5 million barrels per day of crude production had been impacted \u2013 nearly half the kingdom\u2019s output.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The Wall Street Journal reported that Saudi Arabia is shutting down about half of its oil output because of the incident. Authorities have not confirmed whether oil production or exports were affected.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">A military spokesman for Yemen\u2019s Iran-aligned Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for the strikes, saying 10 drones had been deployed in the attack.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The Saudi-led coalition launched airstrikes on Yemen\u2019s northern Saada province, a Houthi stronghold, on Saturday, a Reuters witness said. Houthi-run al Masirah TV said the warplanes targeted a military camp.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Yahia Sarie made the announcement on Saturday in a televised address carried by the Houthi movement\u2019s al-Masirah satellite news channel.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Sarie said the rebels had attacked the Abqaiq oil processing facility and the Khurais oil field. He said attacks against the kingdom would get worse if the war in <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/yemen\">Yemen<\/a> continued.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">\u201cThe only option for the Saudi government is to stop attacking us,\u201d he said. A Saudi-led coalition has been at war with the rebels since March 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">It was unclear whether there were any injuries in the attacks, or whether they would affect the country\u2019s oil production. They are, however, likely to heighten tensions in the region, where Saudi Arabia and Iran are effectively fighting a proxy war in Yemen, and Tehran is at loggerheads with Washington over the latter\u2019s withdrawal from its nuclear deal with world powers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Online videos apparently shot in Abqaiq included the sound of gunfire in the background. Smoke rose over the skyline and flames could be seen in the distance at the oil processing facility.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The fires began after the sites were targeted by drones, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency. It said an investigation was under way.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Saudi Aramco describes its Abqaiq facility as the largest crude oil stabilisation plant in the world. It is thought to be able to process up to 7m barrels of crude a day.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Bob McNally, who runs Rapidan Energy Group and served in the US National Security Council during the second Gulf War in 2003, told Reuters: \u201cA successful attack on Abqaiq would be akin to a massive heart attack for the oil market and global economy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Militants have targeted the plant in the past. Suicide bombers claiming to be from al-Qaida tried but failed to attack it in February 2006.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The Khurais oil field is thought to produce more than 1m barrels of crude a day. It has estimated reserves of more than 20bn barrels, according to Aramco.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">There was no immediate impact on global oil prices, because markets are closed for the weekend. Benchmark Brent crude had been trading at just above $60 a barrel.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Abqaiq is 205 miles (330km) north-east of Riyadh.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">A Saudi-led coalition has been at war with the Houthi movement in Yemen since March 2015. The Iranian-backed rebels hold the capital, Sana\u2019a, and other territory in the Arab world\u2019s poorest country.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The war has triggered the world\u2019s worst humanitarian crisis. The violence has pushed Yemen to the brink of famine and more than 90,000 people have been killed since 2015, according to the US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, which tracks the conflict.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2019\/sep\/14\/major-saudi-arabia-oil-facilities-hit-by-drone-strikes\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Houthi drone strikes spark huge fires at one of the world\u2019s biggest oil processing plants <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Current_Affairs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=194833"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194836,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194833\/revisions\/194836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=194833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=194833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=194833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}