Houthi Attacks Endanger Global Energy Security: Saudi Oil Chief

Fire from an oil depot lights the sky over Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, on March 26, 2022. Hassan Ammar/AP Photo

Attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil and gas sector are threatening the kingdom’s ability to ensure energy security, the country’s energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said at the World Government Summit in Dubai while adding that the markets are going through a “jittery period.”

His comments came after Saudi Arabia faced another attack from Iran-backed Houthis on March 25. Cross-border attacks have compromised “our ability to supply the world with the necessary energy requirements,” the minister said, according to AP.

“It goes without saying that if this security supply is impacted, it will impact us ... but more fundamentally, I think it also will affect the world economy.” Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates could once rely on a collective effort to protect energy security. But these “pillars” are no longer there, the prince added.

After the Houthis took over Yemen’s capital city of Sanaa in 2014, the country has been mired in violence. Though Saudi Arabia and the UAE intervened to suppress the rebels in 2015, the war has carried on. Houthis had sent 851 armed drones and fired 430 ballistic missiles into Saudi Arabia from 2015 till late December.

The most recent attack occurred on March 25 when they attacked oil giant Aramco’s facilities in Jeddah. Besides missiles, the attackers sent drones at the Rabigh and Ras Tanura refineries as well as critical facilities in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.

Saudi state media reported that the Houthi drone and rocket attacks had been foiled and a ballistic missile was destroyed. However, the incident caused a fire at an electricity distribution plant.

The United States has denounced the Houthi terror attacks.

“At a time when the parties should be focused on de-escalation and bringing needed life-saving relief to the Yemeni people ahead of the holy month of Ramadan, the Houthis continue their destructive behavior and reckless terrorist attacks striking civilian infrastructure,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a March 25 press statement.

Following the Friday attack, Saudi Arabia retaliated by pounding Houthi-controlled Yemeni ports on March 26, after which the Houthis offered a three-day peace deal. The United Nations is also working toward a temporary truce between the two parties for Ramadan which begins in April.

Saudi Arabia released an official statement on March 21, highlighting the dangers posed by Houthis to global energy security. The Arab country declared that it “will not incur any responsibility for any shortage in oil supplies to global markets in light of the attacks on its oil facilities from the Iranian-backed terrorist Houthi militias.”

Meanwhile, Brent crude oil futures, which exceeded $138 per barrel on March 7 primarily due to the Russia–Ukraine war, have since come down, but are still trading around the $100 per barrel level. Oil prices declined after Thursday’s peak and were trading at $106.78 per barrel as of 16:53 UTC on March 29.