The attack underscored that Yemen rebels can strike well within both Saudi Arabia and UAE.
8/17/19, “Yemen rebel drone attack targets remote Saudi oil field,” AP, Jon Gambrell, Dubai, UAE
[Image 8/17/19, European Commission’s Sentinel-2 satellite shows smoke rising from Saudia Arabia’s Shaybah oil field]
“Drones launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels attacked a massive oil and gas field deep inside Saudi Arabia’s sprawling desert on Saturday, causing what the kingdom described as a “limited fire” in the second such recent attack on its crucial energy industry.
The attack on the Shaybah oil field, which produces some 1 million barrels of crude oil a day near the kingdom’s border with the United Arab Emirates, again shows the reach of the Houthis’ drone program. Shaybah sits some 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) from Houthi-controlled territory, underscoring the rebels’ ability to now strike at both nations, which are mired in Yemen’s years long war.
The drone assault also comes amid heightened tensions in the wider Mideast between the U.S. and Iran, whose supreme leader hosted a top Houthi official days earlier in Tehran.
State media in Saudi Arabia quoted Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih as saying production was not affected at the oil field and no one was wounded in the attack Saturday. The state-run Saudi Arabian Oil Co., known widely as Saudi Aramco, issued a terse statement acknowledging a “limited fire” at a liquid natural gas facility at Shaybah.
A satellite image obtained by The Associated Press showed black smoke rising just west of the natural gas facility that wasn’t seen in images from prior days. The facility is just north of the airstrip Saudi Aramco built to fly staffers into the remote region.
The Saudi acknowledgement of the attack came hours after Yahia Sarie, a military spokesman for the Houthis, issued a video statement claiming the rebels launched 10 bomb-laden drones targeting the field in their “biggest-ever” operation. He threatened more attacks would be coming.
“This is in response to their [Saudi] aggression toward us and our people in Yemen,” Sarie said.
Al-Falih [Saudi Energy Minister] linked the attack to a May assault by Houthi drones that targeted the kingdom’s crucial East-West Pipeline, a 1,200-kilometer (746-mile) link between its eastern oil fields and the Red Sea. He also mentioned recent explosions on oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz that the U.S. blames on Iranian-planted limpet mines. Iran denies being behind those attacks.
“This act of terrorism and sabotage is only an extension of those acts that have recently targeted the global oil supply chains, including oil pipelines in the kingdom, and oil tankers,” al-Falih said. “This cowardly attack once again highlights the importance of the international community’s response to all terrorist actors who carry out such acts of sabotage, including the Houthi militias.”
The oil field at Shaybah is in the Arabian Peninsula’s Empty Quarter, a sea of sand where temperatures routinely hit 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). Saudi Aramco on its website refers to the field as “the most remote treasure on Earth,” home to reserves of 14.3 billion barrels of oil and 25 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
The field’s distance from rebel-held territory in Yemen demonstrates the range of the Houthis’ drones. U.N. investigators say the Houthis’ new UAV-X drone, found in recent months during the Saudi-led coalition’s war in Yemen, likely has a range of up to 1,500 kilometers (930 miles). That puts Saudi oil fields, an under-construction Emirati nuclear power plant and Dubai’s busy international airport within their range.
Unlike sophisticated drones that use satellites to allow pilots to remotely fly them, analysts believe Houthi drones are likely programmed to strike a specific latitude and longitude and cannot be controlled once out of radio range. The Houthis have used drones, which can be difficult to track by radar, to attack Saudi Patriot missile batteries, as well as enemy troops.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE launched their war against the Houthis in March 2015 to back the country’s internationally recognized government. The UAE recently began withdrawing troops from the conflict while UAE-allied separatists recently seized the city of Aden, further complicating a war seen as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.”…via Moon of Alabama
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Added: Bloomberg article
8/18/19, “Saudi Oil Field Hit by Drone Attack But Production Unaffected,“ Bloomberg, Javier Blas, Verity Ratcliffe
8/17/19, “Yemen rebel drone attack targets remote Saudi oil field,” AP, Jon Gambrell, Dubai, UAE
[Image 8/17/19, European Commission’s Sentinel-2 satellite shows smoke rising from Saudia Arabia’s Shaybah oil field] “Drones launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels attacked a massive oil and gas field deep inside Saudi Arabia’s sprawling desert on Saturday, causing what the kingdom described as a “limited fire” in the second such recent attack on its crucial energy industry.
The attack on the Shaybah oil field, which produces some 1 million barrels of crude oil a day near the kingdom’s border with the United Arab Emirates, again shows the reach of the Houthis’ drone program. Shaybah sits some 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) from Houthi-controlled territory, underscoring the rebels’ ability to now strike at both nations, which are mired in Yemen’s years long war.
The drone assault also comes amid heightened tensions in the wider Mideast between the U.S. and Iran, whose supreme leader hosted a top Houthi official days earlier in Tehran.
State media in Saudi Arabia quoted Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih as saying production was not affected at the oil field and no one was wounded in the attack Saturday. The state-run Saudi Arabian Oil Co., known widely as Saudi Aramco, issued a terse statement acknowledging a “limited fire” at a liquid natural gas facility at Shaybah.
A satellite image obtained by The Associated Press showed black smoke rising just west of the natural gas facility that wasn’t seen in images from prior days. The facility is just north of the airstrip Saudi Aramco built to fly staffers into the remote region.
The Saudi acknowledgement of the attack came hours after Yahia Sarie, a military spokesman for the Houthis, issued a video statement claiming the rebels launched 10 bomb-laden drones targeting the field in their “biggest-ever” operation. He threatened more attacks would be coming.
“This is in response to their [Saudi] aggression toward us and our people in Yemen,” Sarie said.
Al-Falih [Saudi Energy Minister] linked the attack to a May assault by Houthi drones that targeted the kingdom’s crucial East-West Pipeline, a 1,200-kilometer (746-mile) link between its eastern oil fields and the Red Sea. He also mentioned recent explosions on oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz that the U.S. blames on Iranian-planted limpet mines. Iran denies being behind those attacks.
The oil field at Shaybah is in the Arabian Peninsula’s Empty Quarter, a sea of sand where temperatures routinely hit 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). Saudi Aramco on its website refers to the field as “the most remote treasure on Earth,” home to reserves of 14.3 billion barrels of oil and 25 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
The field’s distance from rebel-held territory in Yemen demonstrates the range of the Houthis’ drones. U.N. investigators say the Houthis’ new UAV-X drone, found in recent months during the Saudi-led coalition’s war in Yemen, likely has a range of up to 1,500 kilometers (930 miles). That puts Saudi oil fields, an under-construction Emirati nuclear power plant and Dubai’s busy international airport within their range.
Unlike sophisticated drones that use satellites to allow pilots to remotely fly them, analysts believe Houthi drones are likely programmed to strike a specific latitude and longitude and cannot be controlled once out of radio range. The Houthis have used drones, which can be difficult to track by radar, to attack Saudi Patriot missile batteries, as well as enemy troops.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE launched their war against the Houthis in March 2015 to back the country’s internationally recognized government. The UAE recently began withdrawing troops from the conflict while UAE-allied separatists recently seized the city of Aden, further complicating a war seen as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.”…via Moon of Alabama
……………………………..
Added: Bloomberg article
8/18/19, “Saudi Oil Field Hit by Drone Attack But Production Unaffected,“ Bloomberg, Javier Blas, Verity Ratcliffe
“Yemeni rebels attacked oil and gas facilities at the Shaybah field in southeast Saudi Arabia, but [allegedly] failed to disrupt production [although Saudi Energy Minister called it a “terrorist attack.“]
“Saudi Arabian Oil Co., or Aramco as the company is known, extinguished a small fire at a natural gas liquids plant at Shaybah on Saturday morning [8/17], it said in a statement. There were no casualties and oil operations were not interrupted by the incident.
“We will provide further details as they become available,” the company said.
Yemen’s Houthi rebel leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi claimed the drone attack in a televised speech. He said the strike was meant to deliver an “important message” to the Saudi-led coalition which has been waging war to unseat the Iran-backed Houthi rebels since they overran the capital about four years ago. The attack is “a joint strike against Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates,” according to a tweet published by Houthi-owned al-Masirah TV.
Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih called the incident “a terrorist attack,” in a statement published on the Saudi Press Agency website.
“Saudi Arabia condemns in the strongest terms this cowardly attack, and affirms that this action of sabotage is a continuation of the series of vulgar attacks targeting the global oil supply chain that including those that were recently launched against oil pipelines in the Kingdom and tankers in the Arabian Gulf amongst others,” Al-Falih said in the statement.
“Remote Treasure”
State-owned Aramco calls the Shaybah oilfield “the most remote treasure on Earth.” The field was discovered in the middle of the Rub’ al-Khali desert in 1968, but there were enormous difficulties bringing it on stream. Ecological challenges, including sand dunes standing more than 300 meters (984 feet) high and summer temperatures of almost 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) delayed crude production until 1998.
The field went through several expansion phases and today is able to pump 1 million barrels a day, just under 10% of Aramco’s total production capacity of about 12 million barrels a day.
Shaybah pumps some of the highest quality oil the kingdom is able to produce, akin to the crude pumped from the shale fields in the Permian. The field holds about 14.3 billion barrels of extremely valuable Arabian Extra Light Oil reserves — equal to about 5% of the kingdom’s total reserves.
The field is in one of the most remote corners of Saudi Arabia — so remote it’s called the “Empty Quarter” — and linked to the main export terminals by a 645-kilometer (401 miles) pipeline.”
–“With assistance from Sarah Algethami, Mohammed Hatem and Rene Vollgraaff"
“Saudi Arabian Oil Co., or Aramco as the company is known, extinguished a small fire at a natural gas liquids plant at Shaybah on Saturday morning [8/17], it said in a statement. There were no casualties and oil operations were not interrupted by the incident.
“We will provide further details as they become available,” the company said.
Yemen’s Houthi rebel leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi claimed the drone attack in a televised speech. He said the strike was meant to deliver an “important message” to the Saudi-led coalition which has been waging war to unseat the Iran-backed Houthi rebels since they overran the capital about four years ago. The attack is “a joint strike against Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates,” according to a tweet published by Houthi-owned al-Masirah TV.
Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih called the incident “a terrorist attack,” in a statement published on the Saudi Press Agency website.
“Saudi Arabia condemns in the strongest terms this cowardly attack, and affirms that this action of sabotage is a continuation of the series of vulgar attacks targeting the global oil supply chain that including those that were recently launched against oil pipelines in the Kingdom and tankers in the Arabian Gulf amongst others,” Al-Falih said in the statement.
“Remote Treasure”
State-owned Aramco calls the Shaybah oilfield “the most remote treasure on Earth.” The field was discovered in the middle of the Rub’ al-Khali desert in 1968, but there were enormous difficulties bringing it on stream. Ecological challenges, including sand dunes standing more than 300 meters (984 feet) high and summer temperatures of almost 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) delayed crude production until 1998.
The field went through several expansion phases and today is able to pump 1 million barrels a day, just under 10% of Aramco’s total production capacity of about 12 million barrels a day.
Shaybah pumps some of the highest quality oil the kingdom is able to produce, akin to the crude pumped from the shale fields in the Permian. The field holds about 14.3 billion barrels of extremely valuable Arabian Extra Light Oil reserves — equal to about 5% of the kingdom’s total reserves.
The field is in one of the most remote corners of Saudi Arabia — so remote it’s called the “Empty Quarter” — and linked to the main export terminals by a 645-kilometer (401 miles) pipeline.”
–“With assistance from Sarah Algethami, Mohammed Hatem and Rene Vollgraaff"
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