Terrorists from Yemen’s Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for a missile attack at Saudi Aramco’s North Jeddah Bulk Plant in Saudi Arabia, which resulted in a fire in one of its fuel tanks.
The facility manager of North Jedda Bulk Plant, Abdullah al Ghamdi told journalists on a tour of the site that the projectile struck a 500,000 bbl storage tank, causing a 2 m hole in its roof. The direct hit, at 3.50am local time on 23 November 2020, caused a large explosion and fire. Onsite response teams attended the scene within a minute of the attack, and fire crews had extinguished the fire 40 minutes later. No casualties have been reported as a result of the blaze, which has put the petroleum products distribution terminal out of service. Al Ghamdi said that the company is still determining the scale and cost of the damage. The facility has 13 tanks and has a total capacity of 5.2 million bbl, storing diesel, gasoline and jet fuel.
According to a spokesman from the Saudi energy ministry. Saudi Aramco’s overall fuel supplies to the region have not been affected. The spokesman said that terrorist acts and sabotage on vital oil installations, including a recent incident at a floating offloading platform in Jizan, and others at oil installations in Abqaiq and Khurais, were aimed at the security and stability of energy supplies around the world and the global economy.
The attack has been widely condemned by Saudi Arabia’s neighbours, including the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, and Kuwait, and by the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the UN.
