Aramco's Jizan Refinery Hit by Drone Again

Aramco’s refinery in Jizan, on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast about seventy kilometers from the Yemeni border, was on fire in the early hours of Sunday, August 9, and Houthi forces claimed responsibility for the drone strike. For Serbia, which pays for crude oil at prices set on the world market, this is not a distant story: Jizan is one of the plants that anchors fuel supply on the southern Red Sea, and that sea is the route tankers take toward Suez and European ports.

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Energy said on X that Aramco’s industrial security firefighting crews had put out the blaze and that authorities were carrying out further procedures. The statement mentioned no injuries and gave no cause. Hours later, Riyadh still had not officially confirmed it was an attack, even though the Houthi side had already claimed the strike.

What is Aramco’s Jizan refinery?

The plant processes about 400,000 barrels of crude oil a day and produces gasoline, ultra low sulfur diesel, jet fuel, benzene and sulfur. It sits right on the coast, close to the Yemeni border, which makes it the most exposed point in Saudi Arabia’s energy infrastructure on that southern flank. Short range drones launched from Yemeni territory can reach it without penetrating deep into Saudi territory and without crossing the denser air defense network built around the kingdom’s eastern oil fields.

Yahya Saree, spokesman for the Yemeni armed forces, said the operation was carried out with a drone and cited Saudi aircraft flying over northern Yemeni provinces as the reason.

The Yemeni armed forces succeeded in striking Aramco’s refinery in Jizan with a drone, and the hit was precise. This strike comes in response to the Saudi enemy violating the airspace of Saada and Hajjah provinces with its drones.

Saada and Hajjah are northern Yemeni provinces along the Saudi border and Houthi strongholds. By naming them, the strike on an oil facility in a neighboring country is framed as retaliation for reconnaissance flights, a response in kind.

The strike landed before the plant was back online

The same refinery had already been shut down on July 27, after an earlier Houthi strike damaged its integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) complex and part of its tank farm. The consultancy IIR estimated at the time that Jizan could return to operation around August 15.

By that timeline, the new strike hit while the plant still had not been brought back to full capacity. The damage is therefore measured less by barrels lost than by how far the repair timeline has slipped, since repairs from the first strike are now underway at a site that remains a target. For insurers and oil traders, that is a different kind of risk than a one time incident.

Aramco says exports are untouched

Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser said last week that production, exports and domestic fuel supply had remained unaffected despite reported attacks on the company’s facilities. He declined to comment on individual military and security incidents.

Nasser also said Aramco restores damaged facilities six times faster than the industry average and that the company could return to prewar production levels within days once conditions allow. According to him, the company’s plants on the kingdom’s west coast are still exporting about five million barrels of crude oil a day.

The target is shifting from the border toward Suez

Houthi forces have previously struck oil facilities in Yanbu, well north on the same coast, so the campaign’s reach no longer stops at the strip along the Yemeni border. We recently reported on Houthi attacks on military camps in Yemen that killed dozens of soldiers from the Riyadh backed forces. Jizan shows that the same campaign is being waged at the same time against civilian energy infrastructure on another country’s territory.

For Serbia, the consequence arrives through the price of a barrel. Every added risk on the route through Bab el Mandeb and Suez feeds into tanker insurance premiums, and from there into the price of crude oil, and that price reaches Serbia with a lag of a few weeks, at the pumps and in the cost of shipping goods. The next date to watch is August 15, the deadline IIR set for Jizan’s return to operation, and it is now clear that the clock resets from the new fire, not the one from July.