Extremely disruptive drone attacks on Saudi Aramco oil facilities in eastern Saudi Arabia are arguably the most important military operation yet against the US-allied kingdom’s critical infrastructure.
Saturday’s attacks on petroleum and gas processing plants in Khurais and Abqaiq, which Yemen’s Iran-allied Houthi experimenters have claimed responsibility for, hit down approximately 5.7 million barrels per day (BPD) of total Saudi oil production.
The high-profile aerial attacks are bound to further escalate mounting pressures between Iran and its mostly non-state allies in the region on the one hand, and the United States and its familiar partners Saudi Arabia and Israel on the other.
The US has already pointed the finger of blame at Iran. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Tehran of having “launched an unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply”, while President Donald Trump later told the US is “locked and loaded’, and is “waiting to hear” from Riyadh about who attacked its oil facilities.
Meantime, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) agreed to “confront and deal with this terrorist aggression.” Iran rejected the US accusations that it was behind the attacks and stated the claims were meant to justify “actions” against it.
India Situation after Saudi Aramco Drone attack
Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday announced that oil supplies to India will not be disturbed after an attack on Saudi Arabian oil facilities over the weekend split the kingdom’s production.
India, one of the highest importers of Saudi oil along with China and Indonesia, was assumed to be vulnerable to the supply interruption.
“We have evaluated our overall crude oil supplies for the month of September with our Oil Marketing Companies. We are confident there would be no supply interruption to India. We are closely monitoring the evolving situation,” he answered.
Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest oil exporter and the attack on state-owned producer Saudi Aramco’s crude-processing facilities at Abqaiq and Khurais has cut output by 5.7 million barrels per day. The company has not given a timeline for the resumption of full production output. State-run oil company Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited announced that the price of petrol and diesel at retail outlets force go up if the price of crude stays at current levels.
