Houthis Hit Saudi Aramco Refinery as Strait of Hormuz Stays Shut, Deepening Oil Supply Fears

Saudi Arabia · ENERGY

Yemen’s Houthis said they attacked a Saudi Aramco refinery on the Red Sea coast while the Strait of Hormuz remained shut, squeezing both of the Gulf’s main oil export routes at once and deepening fears of a prolonged supply crisis.

What the Houthis hit and what Saudi Arabia confirmed

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement claimed responsibility for a drone and missile attack on Saudi Aramco oil facilities in Jizan and Yanbu on 9 August 2026. Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group had targeted the kingdom’s coastal energy infrastructure.

Saudi Arabia’s energy ministry confirmed a fire broke out at the Jazan refinery early that Sunday. The ministry said the blaze was extinguished and no injuries were reported, without directly attributing the cause to hostile action.

The attack came less than three weeks after the Houthis declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia in July 2026, warning they would target Saudi shipping. The group had already disrupted Red Sea traffic for months with strikes on commercial vessels.

Why the Houthis attack Saudi refinery sites matters now

The strike is not just another incident in a long-running conflict. It hits Saudi Arabia at a moment when the kingdom is already scrambling to keep oil flowing to world markets.

The Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important oil chokepoint, normally carries roughly a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas trade, or about 15 to 20 million barrels per day. With that route effectively shut, Saudi Arabia had been relying more heavily on its East-West Pipeline and Red Sea terminals to move crude to customers.

By targeting Jizan and Yanbu, the Houthis are threatening the kingdom’s fallback export corridor. Reuters reported that transit through the Bab el-Mandeb strait fell after the strike, showing pressure on both Gulf and Red Sea routes simultaneously.

The oil market is already in shock

The Hormuz disruption had already delivered a historic price shock before the refinery strike. Brent crude rose about 60 to 65 percent in March 2026, which Reuters and the World Bank described as a record monthly increase.

The Dallas Federal Reserve estimated that a complete Gulf export shutdown could push West Texas Intermediate crude to about US$98 per barrel. It also calculated that such a scenario could cut annualised global gross domestic product growth by 2.9 percentage points in the second quarter of 2026.

Asia is especially exposed. The Dallas Fed noted that roughly 80 percent of Gulf exports go to Asian buyers, meaning importers there are hit first and hardest by any prolonged disruption.

Who gains and who loses from the double chokepoint squeeze

Reuters reported that the Hormuz closure created windfalls for some Gulf producers while states dependent on uninterrupted seaborne exports lost billions. Producers with alternative pipeline routes or storage gained leverage.

Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline had been the kingdom’s main workaround. The Houthi strike on the Red Sea coast tests that backup plan directly, raising the risk that both of the Gulf’s major export corridors could be constrained at the same time.

The crisis is tied to a wider United States-Iran conflict. Reporting indicates the Strait closure followed American and Israeli strikes on Iran and Iranian retaliation, turning oil infrastructure into a battlefield for state power and proxy warfare.

The great-power contest and the scramble for backup routes

The double disruption of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb is forcing outside powers into crisis management. Iran can raise global costs by threatening Hormuz, while the Houthis can threaten Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea fallback.

Saudi Arabia is searching for security partners in a more dangerous region. The Guardian reported that Turkey and Pakistan signed a defence pact with the kingdom just two days before the refinery attack.

For African states on the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, the instability threatens trade routes and energy imports. The broader contest over critical maritime chokepoints is reshaping alliances from the Middle East to the Horn of Africa, a dynamic explored in Africa: The New Scramble.

What to watch next

The immediate question is whether the Houthis can sustain strikes on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea infrastructure while Hormuz remains shut. Any further damage to the Jazan or Yanbu facilities would remove the last major workaround for Gulf oil exports.

Shipping data will show in the coming days whether Red Sea transit recovers or continues to fall. The new Saudi defence pact with Turkey and Pakistan signals that Riyadh expects a prolonged period of elevated threat to its energy infrastructure.

The oil market is now watching two chokepoints instead of one. Any escalation that closes both simultaneously would trigger a supply shock far beyond what the Dallas Fed modelled for Hormuz alone.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

• reuters.com
• reuters.com
• brookings.edu
• dallasfed.org

This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error

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