A fire broke out early on Sunday at a facility belonging to Saudi state oil company Aramco in the coastal city of Jizan. Authorities said the blaze was later extinguished and no casualties were reported. According to the Middle East Eye, Saudi Arabia’s energy ministry said the fire occurred at an Aramco refinery facility in Jizan and that emergency authorities had completed the necessary procedures to deal with the incident.
“The competent authorities are completing the necessary procedures to deal with the incident,” the ministry said in a statement on X. The ministry did not mention what caused the fire.
The military spokesperson for Yemen’s Houthi movement, Yahya Saree, said the facility had been targeted by a drone. The group “succeeded in targeting the Aramco refinery in Jizan with a drone, and the strike was precise”, Saree wrote on X. He said the attack was carried out in response to Saudi Arabia’s “breach of the airspace of the provinces of Saada and Hajjah” with drones.
Jizan lies on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast near the border with Yemen and has repeatedly been targeted by the Houthis in attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure. The group also claimed responsibility for attacks on Aramco facilities in Jizan last month, as well as strikes on oil installations in Yanbu, a major Saudi export hub on the Red Sea.
Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser said last week that attacks on the company’s facilities had caused some disruption to production but that he was confident operations could be restored quickly. He said the attacks had not had a material operational or financial impact.
The Houthis also said they had targeted Saudi troops and equipment in the Yemeni Red Sea port city of Mocha using “a large number of ballistic missiles and drones”.
The latest incidents come as fighting intensifies between the Houthis and Yemen’s government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia, following years of relative calm after a 2022 truce.
The Houthis seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in 2014 and control large parts of the country’s north, while the recognised government controls much of the south.
The group also announced a blockade targeting Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea last month and threatened shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
The fire in Jizan was reported separately from an explosion and fires in the eastern Saudi city of Jubail. A loud explosion was heard in the Jubail region, Türkiye’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported, while local media said gas facilities in Jubail Industrial City had been targeted and caught fire.
The incidents come as Saudi Arabia seeks deeper military cooperation with regional partners amid renewed security threats from Yemen. On Friday, Saudi Arabia signed a trilateral defence agreement with Türkiye and Pakistan in Makkah, under which an armed attack on one of the three countries would be treated as an attack on all three.
