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Saudi Arabia’s state-run oil giant Aramco’s Jizan oil facilities in the country’s southern region were reportedly attacked Monday, a month after the site was hit by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis, while no group has yet claimed responsibility for the latest attack.
Aramco is assessing the damage from the latest strike on its production facilities after a previous attack temporarily disrupted some of its production capacity, sources told the Financial Times, adding that the latest incident was similar in scale to the previous strike.
Jizan is the kingdom’s closest industrial city to the Yemeni border and has been targeted by the Houthis several times. Its refinery is designed to process up to 400,000 barrels per day, making it one of Saudi Arabia’s largest, with production including gasoline, ultra-low-sulfur diesel and other refined products.
The facility’s location on the Red Sea has made it particularly important for Saudi refined-product exports as conflict disrupts shipping through the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.
Kpler data shows Jizan shipped about 200,000 barrels per day of refined products in July before the July 25 strike forced the refinery to shut down, with no further waterborne loadings recorded after two tanker cargoes left the port on July 24.
Saudi Arabia’s oil exports and energy infrastructure have come under mounting pressure since the Iran war began in late February.
What began with Iranian attacks and disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz has increasingly spilled into the Red Sea, where Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis reopened a front against Riyadh in July after the collapse of a ceasefire that had kept major fighting largely contained since 2022.
The Houthis declared a maritime blockade of Saudi ports on July 20 and began targeting Saudi-linked vessels, energy infrastructure and shipping routes around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
The latest strike follows a Houthi ground offensive along Yemen’s western front over the weekend, with the group pushing toward the government-held port of Mocha and areas near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in an effort to strengthen its position along the Red Sea coast.
Yemeni media reported fighting around Mocha and Taiz, where clashes killed more than 140 combatants between midday Saturday and early Sunday, including 84 government troops and 57 Houthi fighters, according to military sources cited by AFP.
The escalation has displaced nearly 1,800 families in two days, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, as Saudi-backed government forces seek to halt the Houthi advance toward the coast.
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