Saudi Shuts Down Half Its Oil Output After Drone Strikes...
Massive fires...
Iran-backed rebels claim attacks...
Arab coalition will counter threats...
WSJ: This Is the Big One...
Saturday’s attack on a critical Saudi oil facility will almost certainly rock the world energy market in the short term, but it also carries disturbing long-term implications.
Ever since the dual 1970s oil crises, energy security officials have fretted about a deliberate strike on one of the critical choke points of energy production and transport. Sea lanes such as the Strait of Hormuz usually feature in such speculation. The facility in question at Abqaiq is perhaps more critical and vulnerable.
The Wall Street Journal reported that five million barrels a day of output, or some 5% of world supply, would be taken offline as a result. To illustrate the importance of Abqaiq in the oil market’s consciousness, an unsuccessful terrorist attack in 2006 using explosive-laden vehicles sent oil prices more than $2.00 a barrel higher.
Saudi Arabia is known to spend billions of dollars annually protecting ports, pipelines and processing facilities, and it is the only major oil producer to maintain some spare output. Yet the nature of the attack, which used drones launched by Iranian-supported Houthi fighters from neighboring Yemen, shows that protecting such facilities may be far more difficult today.
3 comments:
I feel this is a much bigger and more dangerous event then it's being reported as.
This is an attack on the foundation of the Saudi Arabian governments existence,
This actually could lead to a regional war that would dwarf the destruction of Iraq and resultant revolution in Syria.
It's not hard to imagine a Saudi led retaliation on all things Iranian with ostensibly secret Israeli-US backing.
I agree. This could lead to an all-out war in the ME.
Or maybe, as you say, some sort of clandestine destruction of everything Iranian - which would be a good thing.
It could also go unanswered.
Iran's use of non-state proxies using Iranian hardware gives them just enough deniability than any direct response towards them will be considered an unprovoked aggression.
What we need is some non-state proxies of our own..... armed with pre-programmed cruise missiles.
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