RIYADH: Operations at a fuel distribution station near Jeddah are continuing as normal after a missile attack by Yemen’s Houthi militia, the Saudi energy ministry said on Tuesday.
The incident did not result in any losses in petroleum products, a ministry official told Al Arabiya television.
A fire broke out on Monday at a fuel tank at the petroleum products distribution station, north of Jeddah, as a result of a “terrorist projectile” launched from Yemen.
The Iran-backed Houthi militants said they struck the facility in the Red Sea city on Monday with a Quds-2 missile.
The latest strike comes just over a year after previous aerial assaults on two other Aramco facilities in Saudi Arabia.
On Tuesday, Aramco granted foreign media access to the Jeddah distribution facility where damage to the storage tank.
The roof of the tank suffered "major damage", with a hole measuring two square metres, said Abdullah al-Ghamdi, manager of the North Jeddah Bulk Plant.
"It was a big fire; it was a big explosion," Ghamdi said, adding the blaze was extinguished within 40 minutes and no casualties were reported.
The manager said distribution from the plant, which provides refined products including jet fuel to the country's west, was restored within three hours even though the damaged tank -- one of 13 -- remained out of action.
Saudi Arabia has been targeted with dozens of ballistic missile and drone attacks since the start of last year.
Ghamdi likened Monday's incident to the September 2019 assault on the Abqaiq processing plant and Khurais oil field in the kingdom's east, which caused turmoil on global energy markets as it temporarily halved the kingdom's crude output.
Washington and Riyadh held Iran responsible for that attack.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Tuesday that global oil markets remained well supplied after the attack on the Saudi oil facilities on Monday.
(With AFP)
