Yemen’s Houthi movement attacked Saudi Aramco’s Jazan refinery with two drones on Thursday, according to the group’s Saba news agency, dealing a fresh blow to a facility that had been shuttered since late July and was days away from resuming operations.
A Houthi military source said the strike was in response to what the group described as Saudi violations of Yemeni airspace and sovereignty in Saada and Hajjah provinces. Saudi Arabia did not immediately comment on the attack, though the country’s defense ministry has previously pledged to respond to cross-border strikes on its energy infrastructure.
The Jazan refinery, located in southwestern Saudi Arabia near the Yemeni border, can process 400,000 barrels of oil per day. Aramco shut the facility on July 27 after a ballistic missile and drone attack damaged its integrated gasification combined-cycle complex and an oil storage area. Repairs were tentatively expected to be completed by August 15, just one day before Thursday’s new strike.
Thursday’s attack sent oil markets into a volatile session. Brent crude had earlier fallen more than 3.5 percent on signs of weaker global demand and rising US crude stocks, but the reports from Jazan pared those losses to less than 1 percent. Brent settled at $88.24 a barrel while WTI crude traded at $82.56, with diesel crack spreads hitting an all-time high on the supply fears.
The repeated targeting of Jazan represents a strategic escalation in the Houthi campaign against Saudi energy infrastructure. Earlier strikes had already damaged the refinery’s gas processing and power generation units, and satellite imagery confirmed a fire at one of the facility’s storage tanks following the July attack. The group also claimed strikes on Aramco facilities at Yanbu on the Red Sea coast.
Saudi Arabia has intercepted multiple drone and missile attacks on its eastern province oil facilities since the broader regional conflict began, including strikes launched from Iraqi territory. The kingdom’s foreign ministry has said it “reserves the right to respond” to attacks attributed to Iran-backed armed groups across the region.
The damage to Jazan compounds an already stressed global oil supply picture. The Strait of Hormuz remains heavily constrained, Libya has weighed force majeure declarations at its Zawiya port complex, and the IEA has warned that global stockpiles are rapidly dwindling. With the Jazan refinery offline and no clear restart timeline after the latest attack, Saudi Arabia’s refining capacity faces a significant reduction at a time when every barrel matters.
Sources: Dawn / Reuters, OilPrice.com, Middle East Eye
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