Yemen Rebels Rain Missiles On Saudi Oil, Gas Facilities

Yemen’s Houthi rebels unleashed a barrage of drone and missile strikes on Saudi Arabia early Sunday that targeted a liquefied natural gas plant, water desalination plant, oil facility, and power station, Saudi state-run media reported, Isabel Debre reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Photo Insert: Houthi rebels

The attacks also came as Saudi Arabia’s state-backed oil giant Aramco announced that its profits rose 124% in 2021 to $110 billion, a big jump amid renewed anxieties about global supply shortages, soaring oil prices, and recovery in fuel demand from the coronavirus pandemic.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have so far resisted Western appeals to increase oil production to offset the loss of Russian oil as gasoline prices skyrocket. The international oil benchmark Brent crude hovered over $107 on Sunday after nearly touching a peak of $140 earlier this month.

Yehia Sarie, a spokesman for Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels said the group had launched “a wide and large military operation into the depth of Saudi Arabia.” The military coalition said it thwarted an attack on a liquefied gas plant at a petrochemicals complex in the Red Sea port of Yanbu run by Aramco.

Other strikes targeted a power station in the country’s southwest, a desalination facility in Al-Shaqeeq on the Red Sea coast, an Aramco terminal in the southern border town of Jizan, and a gas station in the southern city of Khamis Mushait, the coalition said.

As part of its yearly report, Aramco said it has stuck to its promise of paying quarterly dividends of $18.75 billion — $75 billion a year — due to commitments the company made to shareholders in the run-up to its initial public offering. Nearly all of the dividend money goes to the Saudi government, which owns more than 98% of the company.

Despite Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s efforts to diversify the economy away from oil, the kingdom remains heavily dependent on oil exports to fuel government spending.

The ongoing war has created one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, with a recent UN report estimating that hundreds of thousands of people have died and millions have been displaced as a result of the conflict.

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