For the second time this month, Saudi Aramco has come under attack at its Jizan refinery, with a fresh strike hitting the facility on Monday, according to reports citing sources familiar with the matter.
Damage is still being assessed by the state energy giant, and several explosions were reported at the site by multiple sources. The incident was first reported by the Financial Times, while separate accounts described a wider salvo across Aramco’s Jizan oil facilities.
The refinery processes 400,000 barrels of oil a day, making it one of the larger refineries in the country.
An escalating confrontation between Houthi forces and Saudi Arabia over Red Sea shipping lanes and energy infrastructure lies behind the latest hit, a standoff that is now testing the durability of the 2022 ceasefire.
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Global energy markets are under acute strain as the attack lands. A separate flashpoint in the Strait of Hormuz, where the United States and Iran have traded tit-for-tat attacks on vessels, has been driving crude benchmarks higher. Prices have touched near seven-week highs, with Brent extending above $97 a barrel and WTI above $92.
Alongside the physical clashes, Tehran has sharpened its rhetoric. US oil and gas companies operating across the region’s waters and facilities are exposed, warned Iran’s Parliament Speaker Ghalibaf, who said “Strike our assets and you get struck.” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson described the situation as “not a war but an overt aggression.”
Major producers are already recalculating under the pressure. Weighing alternative sources for oil and its marketing, an advisor to the Iraqi prime minister told Al Arabiya that Iraq had “moved to a phase of coexistence with the Hormuz crisis.” Iraq’s oil ministry said August crude exports reached around 70 million barrels.
The repeated targeting of Jizan lays bare how vulnerable Aramco’s downstream assets remain at a moment when regional tensions are keeping a firm bid under crude and leaving little margin for supply disruption.
