The world's largest oil company halved oil and gas production due to drone attacks in refineries

The Saudi Prince of Energy, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, today confirmed that the world's leading oil company Aramco would halve its production after the Huti drones attacks against the mills. Abqaiq and Khurais.

The Saudi state oil company, Saudi Aramco, is the largest hydrocarbon production capacity in the world.

Houthi rebels in Yemen today launched an attack on ten drones against two refineries of the Saudi oil company Aramco, where they caused two controlled fires. After that, it was announced that the company would halve its production, which put on alert. the entire international oil market.

Shortly after the attack, houthie army spokesman, Yahya Sarea, said in a statement that the facilities attacked this morning were located in the Saudi regions of Abqaiq and Khurais. and that the impact of the ten drones was "accurate and direct". .

In keeping with its usual rhetoric, Sarea justified these attacks with a "legitimate" response to the past five years of aggression against Yemen, where Riyadh was leading a military coalition in favor of the internationally recognized Yemeni government.

"We promise the Saudi regime that our future operations will grow further and will be more painful than before as aggression and siege continue," concluded the rebel army spokesman, reported the EFE news agency.

For its part, a source from the Saudi Interior Ministry, quoted by the kingdom's official agency, SPA, confirmed that Aramco's security teams had extinguished two fires caused by drones in east of the country.

The reaction of Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman was welcomed after a conversation he had with US President Donald Trump in which he said his country was "willingness and ability to deal with and deal with" terrorist aggression "of Yemeni Houthis.

According to a statement from the Saudi Foreign Ministry posted on his Twitter account, the prince told Trump that he had "the willingness and ability to deal with this terrorist aggression".

For his part, the US president was willing to collaborate with Riyadh on "everything" that contributes to its security and stability, while confirming the impact of this morning's attacks on the US economy and the world. .

This is the second major attack by Yemeni rebels in less than a month against Aramco's facilities, which credit agencies Moody's and Fitch regard as the company with the highest profits in the world, with an estimated net profit of $ 111.1 billion. 2018.

Drone attacks on Saudi airports and military and oil targets are common in rebel ranks, and in recent weeks they have occurred almost daily.

Fear of the impact of the attack eased a little later, when the Saudi energy prince, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, confirmed that the world's leading oil company Aramco would halve drone attacks by Houthis against the Abqaiq and Khurais factories.

Abdelaziz said in an official statement issued by the Saudi agency that the explosions had stopped crude oil production in about 5.7 million barrels ", or about 50% of Aramco's production, but that this reduction would be offset by stocks ".

The minister explained that "these explosions have also halted the estimated badociated gas production" in 2 billion cubic feet per day, used to produce 700,000 thousand barrels of liquid gas, which will reduce ethane supply and in natural gas up to about 50%.

Beyond the collaboration promised by Trump, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Ben Salman, on Saturday accused Iran of attacks on two oil refineries in Saudi Arabia and said that "There was no evidence" suggesting that this offensive was a reality. launched from Yemen.

"In the midst of calls for the reduction of tensions, Iran has launched an unprecedented attack on global energy supplies," Pompeo said on Twitter.

The Yemeni conflict erupted in late 2014 when rebels occupied Saná and other provinces of the country and expelled President Abdo Rabu Mansur Hadi, now exiled to Saudi Arabia.

Riyadh and its Arab allies have militarily intervened in the conflict since March 2015 to try to defeat the Houthis, backed by Iran, and restore the exiled leader.