Armed Yemeni Houthis launched yet another ballistic missile at Saudi Arabia’s state-run oil company, Saudi Aramco on Monday, according to Houthi TV station al-Masirah tv.
No damage has yet been reported, with a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis saying that Saudi air defense forces had tracked the missile, which had landed in the middle of the uninhabited desert, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
The Houthis targeted an Aramco facility in the Jizan province, the latest in a string of escalating tensions between the Houthis and the Kingdom. Saudi Aramco has a 400,000-bpd refinery in Jazan in the country’s southwest. The refinery is part of a project for a Jazan Economic City that will also contain a terminal.
The Houthi Shiite rebel group is aligned with Iran and has been fighting a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen since 2015. Today’s attack is one of a string of escalations in recent weeks, with the Houthi rebels firing or claiming to have fired multiple missiles at Saudi Arabia since then, but they have caused little damage, and many of those missiles have been intercepted by the Saudi military.
Yemen lies along one of the main global oil chokepoints in the Red Sea. Millions of barrels of crude oil pass Yemeni shores from the Suez Canal en route to Europe every day. Related: OPEC Lifts Oil Demand Forecast Amid Rising Prices
The attacks come just a day after Saudi troops landed on the Yemeni island of Socotra, according to al-Malki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition. The soldiers were there on a training and support mission with Yemeni forces, according to al-Malki.
Earlier last month, a Saudi oil tanker was targeted by the Houthi movement off Yemen’s port of Hodeidah, sustaining minor damages and completing its course north.
The violence escalated toward the end of last year, with the Houthis threatening to start attacking oil tankers and warships sailing under enemy flag if the Gulf coalition fighting it in the country does not reopen its ports.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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