Damage at Saudi oil facilities revealed after airstrikes
- by Patty Hardy
- in Business
- — Sep 21, 2019
Saudi Arabia took journalists on Friday to the site of a missile-and-drone strike on the kingdom's oil industry that shook global energy markets over the weekend, while Kuwait raised the security levels at its ports following the attack that the US alleges Iran carried out.
Iran has denied involvement and warned the USA that any attack will spark an "all-out war" with immediate retaliation from Tehran.
U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., said in an interview Thursday that if Trump "chooses an option that involves a significant military strike on Iran that, given the current climate between the U.S. and Iran, there is a possibility that it could escalate into a medium to large-scale war, I believe the president should come to Congress".
While Tehran's Houthi allies in Yemen claimed responsibility, unnamed US officials told the media Iran had launched cruise missiles and drones from its territory.
Describing new sanctions, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the central bank has sent billions to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and terrorist proxies.
"We have just sanctioned the Iranian national bank", Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
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The attack punched holes in giant metal onion-shaped structures that help separate gas from crude oil.
Abqaiq processes sour crude oil into sweet crude, and it is transported to transshipment points on the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea or to refineries for local production. The missiles and drones used resembled Iranian-made weapons, although analysts say more study is needed to definitively link them to Iran.
Kuwait has raised the security alert level at all of its ports, including the oil terminals, the state-run KUNA news agency reported on Friday, citing Trade and Industry Minister Khaled Al-Roudhan.
The recent attacks knocked out more than half of Saudi Arabia's daily crude oil production.
Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said on Thursday that the U.S. has a high level of confidence that officials will be able to accurately determine who launched the attacks last weekend. The oil field was back online within 24 hours of the attack, they said.
Abqaiq's throughput before the attack was about 4.9 million barrels a day, and on Tuesday Aramco Chief Executive Officer Amin Nasser said it was processing about 2 million a day. Opening up the facilities slightly to journalists both bolsters Saudi Arabia's push for global condemnation of the attack while offering at least a glimpse at the crown jewels ahead of the IPO.
