Saudi Arabia said on Monday it would “take no responsibility” for the world’s shortage of oil supplies after a fierce bombing by Yemen’s Houthis rebels affected production in the kingdom, the world’s largest oil exporter.
The unusually harsh warning marked a deviation from the typically cautious statements of the oil-producing giant, as Saudi officials remain aware that even their smallest comments could change the price of oil and shake world markets.
The statement comes as the kingdom keeps pace with OPEC and other oil-producing countries in an agreement that limits production increases and while energy prices rise amid Russia’s war against Ukraine. Americans have already had to pay record prices at the pump for gasoline. Saudi Arabia is the world’s second largest oil producer, after the United States. Russia is the third largest.
The Saudi news agency quoted the Foreign Ministry as saying that “the international community must assume its responsibility to maintain the energy supply” in order to “oppose the Huthis.”
Repeated Houthis attacks will affect “the kingdom’s production capacity and its ability to meet its obligations,” the statement added, threatening “security and stability of energy supply to global markets.”
The price of Brent crude, the international benchmark, stood at more than $ 112 a barrel on Monday.
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On Sunday, Yemeni Houthis rebels launched a series of attacks on the kingdom’s oil and natural gas production. The Saudi Ministry of Energy had said that the attacks on the Yanbu Petrochemical Complex on the Red Sea coast caused a temporary drop in oil production.
Drone and missile attacks set fire to a tank at an oil distribution center in the Saudi port city of Jeddah and affected production at the gas plant in Yanbu. The overall extent of the damage to the facilities had not been clarified.
The Saudi government has condemned the attacks, saying they threaten the security of oil supply “in these extremely sensitive circumstances” in the global energy market.
Sunday’s relentless wave of strikes marked one of the most intense Houthi bombings in the kingdom, exposing the vulnerabilities of the Saudi defense and recalling the spectacular September 2019 attacks on two key oil facilities that ended half of production. Saudi Arabia’s total oil.
The White House strongly condemned the strikes and pledged to support Saudi Arabia’s defenses and denounced the Hutis as representatives of Iran. On Sunday afternoon, a senior government official confirmed that the United States had transferred a significant number of Patriot anti-missile interceptors to help Saudi Arabia defend itself from drone and Houthi missile attacks.
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