Fire breaks out at Saudi Aramco refinery

A fire broke out early Sunday, August 9, at a facility belonging to Saudi Aramco’s Jazan refinery in southwestern Saudi Arabia, with no injuries reported, the Energy Ministry said. In a post on X, the ministry said Aramco’s industrial security firefighting teams had extinguished the blaze, while the relevant authorities were completing the necessary procedures to deal with the incident. The ministry did not disclose the cause of the fire. https://twitter.com/i/status/2086264025185243338 Later, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a post on X that Yemen’s armed forces had targeted the Aramco refinery in Jizan with a drone, describing the strike as precise. He said the operation was carried out in response to what he described as Saudi violations of Yemeni airspace over Saada and Hajjah provinces. https://twitter.com/i/status/2086340873202127277 The Jazan refinery is located on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast near the border with Yemen and has a crude processing capacity of about 400,000 barrels per day. It produces refined petroleum products, including gasoline and ultra-low-sulphur diesel. The incident comes amid heightened security concerns surrounding Saudi energy infrastructure and Red Sea shipping. The refinery was shut on July 27 after an attack by Yemen’s Houthis damaged its Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle complex and tank farm, according to a consultancy note cited by Reuters. The Houthis had claimed that they targeted Aramco facilities in Jazan and Yanbu. Aramco says operations remain intact Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said last week that the company’s production, exports and domestic fuel supplies remained intact despite reported attacks on its facilities. He declined to comment on individual military or security incidents. Nasser said Aramco could restore damaged facilities six times faster than the industry average and return to pre-conflict production within days once conditions allowed. He also said the company continued to export about five million barrels of crude per day from its west coast facilities. Update:The article has been updated to include the Houthi claim.