Saudi Air Defenses Thwarted Attack on Aramco
January 29 2020 - 1:28PM
Dow Jones News
By Summer Said and Dion Nissenbaum
Saudi Arabia's air defense forces last week shot down missiles
aimed at Saudi Aramco oil facilities, kingdom officials said
Wednesday, after Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen said they had
targeted the world's most valuable company and other sites in Saudi
Arabia.
The missile attacks came four months after a squad of drones
carried out coordinated attacks on two of Saudi Arabia's vital
crude production sites and temporarily knocked out more than half
of the country's oil production capacity.
Yemeni rebels claimed responsibility for the attacks. Saudi
Arabia and the U.S. blamed Iran, which backs the Houthi rebels, for
the attacks. Iran has denied involvement.
Since the attacks last fall, the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., known as
Aramco, staged the world's biggest initial public offering in
December. The stock offering, on Saudi Arabia's Tadawul exchange,
attracted much less European and U.S. investor interest than the
company anticipated, in part due to concerns over Aramco's high
valuation and the security of its facilities in the volatile Middle
East.
The most recent attacks threaten to upset attempts at peace
between the Saudis, the Houthis and Iran. Saudi Arabia has been
trying to dislodge the Houthi forces from neighboring Yemen since
2015. In recent months, Riyadh has engaged in secret talks with the
Houthis, according to Saudi, Persian Gulf and U.S. officials.
Saudi officials with the matter said all strikes on Saudi Arabia
last week were foiled. Aramco declined to comment.
On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S.
was alarmed by the spike in violence and called on the Houthis to
halt any attacks on Saudi territory.
"Over the past few weeks de-escalatory efforts produced a
significant reduction in fighting and showed to the Yemeni people
that an end to hostilities is possible," he said. "However, renewed
fighting is unacceptable and threatens to undermine this
hard-earned progress."
The new escalatory cycle accelerated earlier this month when
Houthi fighters launched a missile attack that killed more than 100
Yemeni government fighters in Marib. The Saudi military responded
with expanded airstrikes aimed at Houthi forces in Yemen.
Martin Griffiths, the United Nations' special envoy to Yemen,
has warned that the renewed violence could undermine peace
talks.
Houthi forces initiated the push for talks in September with a
proposal for a unilateral cease-fire. The Saudis responded with a
partial cease-fire of their own.
"A Houthi faction is angry about the conversations with the
Saudis," said a former security official in the Trump
administration. "They are trying hard to ruin the back channels and
hope the Saudis will overreact."
Saudi Arabia also is trying to mend fences with Iran and other
regional foes as officials in the kingdom have grown more worried
about the risks conflict poses to its oil-dependent economy.
As part of the attacks last week, Yemeni rebels targeted
Aramco's Abha and Jazan facilities as well as airports, the Khamis
Mushait military base and other targets inside Saudi Arabia, Houthi
spokesman Yahya Saree said on television.
The attacks were a response to airstrikes on Yemen, he said.
Aramco's facility in Jazan is home to a 400,000-barrel-a-day
refinery. The location doesn't house crude-oil production
operations or major export terminals. The complex, still under
construction, is expected to be fully operational in the second
half of 2020, according to Aramco's IPO prospectus.
--Benoit Faucon contributed to this article.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 29, 2020 13:13 ET (18:13 GMT)
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