Saudi Aramco headquarters suffered extensive damage in Houthi attack, sources say
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Operations at the complex in eastern Saudi Arabia have continued normally but some employees have been asked to work from home.
PHOTO: AFP
Oil giant Saudi Aramco’s headquarters in Dhahran suffered extensive damage in an attack on Oct 13, with fire spreading across several floors, three people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
Operations at the complex in eastern Saudi Arabia have continued normally, but some employees have been asked to work from home, according to two of the sources.
A fourth person said some functions had been shifted to global offices, adding that the fire was still burning into the early hours of Oct 14.
The facility hosts an operations centre that helps the world’s largest oil company oversee onshore and offshore oil rigs, refineries, export terminals and thousands of kilometres of pipeline.
Saudi Arabia’s Energy Ministry said in a statement that the Oct 13 night attack, which came as fighting between Yemen’s Iran-allied Houthis and the kingdom intensified, had caused a limited fire, with no reported injuries or deaths.
Two of the sources said a fire started on the ninth floor of the south wing of the office block and spread between the sixth and 10th floors.
Another source added that the top three floors of the building, where the office of Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser is located, were severely damaged, with part of the ceiling caved in and windows and doors blown out.
Aramco did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.
The Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack and vowed on Oct 14 to press on with attacks on airports and oil facilities in Saudi Arabia.
The Iran-aligned group said it had launched ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones at Saudi Aramco facilities in Dhahran, King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and an Aramco refinery in Riyadh, without saying when.
The Houthis had threatened a “harsh and painful” response to Saudi-led strikes on the Yemeni capital Sanaa, with spokesman Yahya Saree saying targets could include the Saudi Aramco headquarters in Dhahran and an oil refinery in Riyadh.
Riyadh’s international airport has received four strikes, including one on Oct 10 that killed 13 people.
The Oct 10 ballistic missile strike on Riyadh airport was the deadliest in Saudi Arabia in a decade, with further attacks grounding flights across the country.
Earlier, six sources told Reuters they heard loud booms near the Aramco complex.
The Saudi-led coalition said fragments of a missile that it had intercepted and destroyed in Dhahran had fallen on a residential area, without providing further details.
The authorities also reported that drones and missiles were intercepted and destroyed in the capital, Riyadh, and the country’s southern region.
Four people in Riyadh were injured by falling fragments from two Houthi missiles following their interception and destruction, Saudi Civil Defence said on Oct 14.
The debris caused limited damage to 15 homes in the capital, the Civil Defence spokesperson said, adding that the injured were two women, a man and a child.
The Houthis earlier on Oct 13 said Saudi Arabia was attacking Sanaa, and the Saudi-led coalition warned civilians to stay away from an oil depot on the city’s outskirts.
Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV reported that the Saudi-led coalition had targeted the Yemen Petroleum Company’s Sabah central station, a fuel depot on the outskirts of Sanaa.
The coalition said in a statement on Oct 13 that it attacked the station and other sites in an operation aimed at “neutralising the capabilities of Houthis” to threaten Saudi Arabia, Yemen and international waterways.
The Saudi Cabinet, chaired by de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, issued a statement on Oct 13 before the strike on Saudi Aramco, saying the Houthis would face consequences for their repeated attacks on the kingdom.
Saudi Arabia resumed its military campaign in Yemen in support of the internationally recognised government to reverse the Houthis’ sudden gains in September, when they swept down the Red Sea coast to the critical Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
The strait, the southern gateway to the Red Sea, has become a more vital route for Saudi and other global energy supplies since the start of the Iran war in February, when Tehran closed the Strait of Hormuz leading from the Gulf to the Indian Ocean.
A government offensive that began a week ago has pushed the Houthis from the area closest to the strait, but the group remains embedded nearby and has made gains around the city of Taiz in October. REUTERS