Attack Targets Yanbu Port and Halts Oil Loading… What Are the Details?

Exclusive Follow-ups — Al-Khabar Al-Yemeni:

The Saudi port of Yanbu on the Red Sea has returned once again to the circle of targeting, in a development that threatens to disrupt the movement of Saudi crude oil exports through one of the Kingdom’s most important outlets on the Red Sea, just a few days after part of the loading operations in it resumed following a previous halt.

The “TradeWinds” website specialized in maritime navigation revealed that an attack targeted Yanbu Port, which led to the outbreak of a fire and the suspension of Saudi crude oil loading operations, while a British company specialized in maritime security quoted a tanker captain as saying that the loading operations stopped following the fire that broke out as a result of an attack that occurred yesterday.

These developments come a short period after the restarting of the Saudi pipeline extending from the Eastern Region to Yanbu, and the resumption of crude oil loading operations at the port, which makes the latest attack have direct repercussions on Riyadh’s attempts to re-secure the oil export route via the Red Sea.

Although Sana’a hasn’t officially announced its adoption of the operation that targeted Yanbu, media platforms spoke yesterday about the occurrence of attacks on the port and the outbreak of fires inside it, without specifying the nature of the attack.

The targeting of Yanbu acquires particular importance for Saudi Arabia, as the port represents one of the most prominent outlets for Saudi oil exports to global markets via the Red Sea, and also forms an essential part of Riyadh’s strategy to reduce the dependence of its oil exports on the maritime route via the Strait of Hormuz.

Observers considered that the arrival of the attacks to the port and the outbreak of a fire and the suspension of loading operations, despite the protection measures announced by Riyadh with the help of France and Greece, places the defense system on which Saudi Arabia is betting before a new test, especially since Yanbu has become during the recent period a sensitive point in the equation of the security of Saudi oil exports.