Fire at Aramco’s Red Sea refinery in Jazan extinguished; no injuries reported

FIREFIGHTERS extinguished a fire that broke out early on Sunday (Aug 9) at a facility at Aramco’s Jazan refinery in southwestern Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Energy Ministry said, adding that there were no injuries.

Aramco’s industrial security teams had brought the fire under control and the relevant authorities were completing procedures to deal with the incident, the ministry said on X. It did not say what caused the fire.

Jazan is on the Red Sea near the border with Yemen.

The Jazan refinery processes 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day and produces refined products including gasoline and ultra-light sulfur diesel.

Aramco shut down the refinery on Jul 27 following an attack by Yemen’s Houthi militants that damaged the plant’s Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle complex and tank farm area, according to a note from consultancy IIR seen by Reuters.

The Houthis said at the time they had struck Aramco sites in Jazan and Yanbu. The attacks raised the prospect that threats to Red Sea shipping and Saudi oil infrastructure could widen global disruption stemming from the US war against Iran and Iranian attacks on shipping around the Strait of Hormuz.

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Asean Intelligence

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Aramco chief Amin Nasser said on Aug 4 that recent attacks on the company’s facilities had caused some production interruptions but that he was confident operations could be restored quickly. He said the attacks had no material operational or financial impact.

The Houthis declared a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea in July in response to what they described as a Saudi siege of Yemen, an allegation Riyadh denies. REUTERS