Houthis claim a Yanbu strike on a hub that already stopped loading
Yemen's Houthis claimed attacks on Riyadh and Aramco's Yanbu facilities on Saturday, September 19. Yanbu had already halted crude loadings after the September 10 East-West pipeline attack, a bypass that had been moving about 4 million barrels a day.
Yemen's Houthis said they struck Aramco's Yanbu export hub on Saturday, a Red Sea terminal that had already stopped loading crude after an attack nine days earlier on the pipeline that feeds it. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said his forces had carried out two operations with ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones, one against "sensitive sites" in Riyadh and the other against "Aramco facilities in Yanbu." The Saudi-led coalition's spokesman, Major General Turki Al-Malki, said Royal Saudi Air Defense Forces intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile aimed at Riyadh at dawn and that attempts on Yanbu, Baish, Taif and Farasan were thwarted.
Yanbu is the Red Sea door on Saudi Arabia's overland bypass around the Strait of Hormuz. An official source at the Saudi Ministry of Energy told the Saudi Press Agency the day after the Thursday, September 10 attacks that the line in the Riyadh and Madinah regions "was subjected to multiple attacks" and "was shut down as a precautionary measure," with injuries. Reuters reported on September 13 that the pipeline had been rerouting around 4 million barrels a day to Yanbu, about 4% of global supply. Shipping-industry sources told Reuters on Tuesday that crude loadings there had been suspended; Aramco declined to comment.
A successful strike on Yanbu on Saturday would therefore have been an attack on a hub that, on the last sourced account, was not loading crude.
Riyadh airport, and what officials confirmed
Saudi civil defence sent Riyadh a "hostile aerial threat" alert before dawn, then an all-clear after booms in the capital and a column of black smoke over the fuel-storage area beside King Khalid International Airport. An AFP journalist reported firefighters putting out a blaze on an Aramco-branded fuel tank at that depot. FlightRadar24 assigned King Khalid its maximum disruption index of 5.0, meaning major problems with long delays and several cancelled flights. Reuters said the overnight alerts were the first in the capital since the Houthi escalation began in July.
That is the confirmed local disruption. It is not confirmation that a Houthi warhead hit an oil-export plant.
The Associated Press reported that Saudi authorities described no casualties or damage from the day's attacks, and that Aramco did not respond to a request for comment. Saree claimed "massive fires" and did not offer independent evidence.
How long Yanbu stays dark
The U.S. Energy Information Administration puts the East-West crude pipeline's nameplate at 5 million barrels a day, a figure Aramco temporarily expanded to 7.0 million barrels a day in 2019 by converting some natural-gas-liquids lines. Actual flow to the port, on Reuters' last count before the halt, was the 4 million barrels a day above.
Three industry sources told Reuters on September 13 that Yanbu had stocks to maintain exports for five to seven days without the pipeline. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNBC on Tuesday that crude should be flowing through the line within days. A source who spoke to Reuters said the damage could take five or six weeks to repair.
Hormuz itself remains the other constraint on Saudi and Gulf exports, a story already on our record after Oman postponed talks and after Iran's claim of a tanker strike on Friday.
USO, BNO, and the energy funds into Sunday
The last weekend of Saudi-related strikes did move the first electronic print. At 6:14 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday, September 13, Reuters put Brent at $108.23 a barrel, up $3.62 or 3.46%. That handle did not hold. In the cash sessions that followed, Brent printed $108.75 the day the Yanbu loading halt was reported, then faded. Friday's session last printed Brent at $103.87 a barrel, down 0.91%. West Texas Intermediate futures closed that session at $100.30, down 1.6%. ICE and CME energy futures stay shut until Sunday evening in New York.
Listed crude funds followed that arc, then sat through Saturday with nothing new to mark. USCF's United States Oil Fund USO, which holds near-month WTI futures, closed Friday at $153.82, down 0.96%. Its sister, the United States Brent Oil Fund BNO, closed at $60.57, down 0.57%. etf.net grades USO a B and BNO a C among energy-futures funds.
Energy stocks barely moved. State Street's Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund XLE, the S&P 500 energy basket, closed Friday at $64.31, down 0.26%, and carries an A on etf.net's published grades.
From the September 10 close, the day the pipeline was attacked, USO is down 2.9% and Brent is down 3.5%.
Brent and USO slipped from the pipeline-attack close
- Brent · 103.87
- USO · 153.82
- XLE · 64.31
The pipeline shock is already in the futures funds. Saturday's statements are not.
A restart in days, Wright's timeline, is a delay on barrels already not loading at Yanbu. Five or six weeks, with Hormuz still constrained, is 4 million barrels a day still missing, against that five-to-seven-day stock cushion, a window that was already expiring as Saturday's claim arrived. An Aramco or Energy Ministry notice of damage at Yanbu, or the first electronic Brent print after 6 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, is the next mark that separates those two.
Frequently asked
Did the Houthis actually hit Yanbu?
Saudi officials said the attempts on Yanbu and other sites were thwarted, reported no casualties or damage, and the Houthi claim of massive fires came with no independent evidence.
What did happen in Riyadh?
Civil defence issued a hostile aerial threat alert, booms and black smoke came from the fuel-storage depot beside King Khalid International Airport, and a fire on an Aramco-branded tank was put out while the airport got the maximum disruption rating.
How much oil is off the table while the pipeline is down?
The line had been rerouting about 4 million barrels a day to Yanbu, roughly 4% of global supply, and the port had stocks for only five to seven days of exports without it.
How have oil funds reacted?
Brent and the crude funds faded after a brief bump, leaving USO down 2.9% and Brent down 3.5% from the pipeline-attack close, with futures shut until Sunday evening.