Oil giant Saudi Aramco announced on Tuesday (November 24th) that a strike by Yemeni Houthi rebels on its Jeddah plant had made a "
big hole
" in the roof of an oil tank, triggering an explosion and a fire that was quickly turned off.
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Yemeni rebels, backed by Iran, fired a missile on Monday at a site of Aramco, located in the large city in western Saudi Arabia, igniting an oil tank.
"
There is significant damage to the roof itself, it is a large hole of almost two meters by two meters,
" said the director of the factory, Abdallah al-Ghamdi, during a visit with the press organized by the company.
The upper edge of the tank was blackened by fire and the ramps deformed by heat, noted an AFP correspondent present on the spot.
"
The fire was extinguished in a very short time, it only took about 40 minutes to cause a major fire in such a large tank
," he said, confirming that there was no had casualties.
The plant, which has a total of 13 tanks, supplies refined products, including kerosene, to the west of the country.
The Houthis have stepped up attacks against Saudi Arabia, which has led a military coalition that has intervened in Yemen since 2015 to support government forces against the rebels.
In September 2019, attacks on Aramco facilities in eastern Saudi Arabia in September caused extensive damage and temporarily halved the country's oil production.
The Houthis had also claimed responsibility for the attack, but Riyadh and Washington had accused Tehran of having "
sponsored
" it.
Iran denies providing weapons to the Houthis but does not hide its political support for the rebels.
"
What happened yesterday is another hostile attack, similar to what happened
" in September 2019, Abdallah al-Ghamdi said.
“
However, this will only demonstrate Aramco's resilience and prove the reliability of our energy supply in the kingdom and beyond,
” he added.
