Attack sets fire to Aramco building in Dhahran as Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia escalate

A Saudi Aramco administrative building in Dhahran caught fire after it was targeted late Tuesday, Saudi Arabia's energy ministry said, hours after Yemen's Houthis threatened the oil giant's headquarters.

What Saudi Arabia confirmed

An administrative building belonging to Saudi Aramco in Dhahran, in the kingdom's Eastern Region, was targeted on Tuesday evening, Oct. 13, causing a limited fire, Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Energy said in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency at 12:33 a.m. local time Wednesday. The ministry said authorities responded and took the necessary measures, and that no one was killed or injured.

The ministry's statement, as published by the Saudi Press Agency, did not say what hit the building or who was responsible. A company source told Reuters that a ballistic missile struck an office tower in the Aramco headquarters complex and damaged its top three floors. That source and two other people with knowledge of the matter said the building was on fire.

Hours after a warning from Sanaa

The attack followed a Saudi-led coalition strike on Tuesday on the Yemen Petroleum Company's al-Sabaha central station, a fuel depot on the outskirts of the Houthi-held capital, Sanaa. The coalition said the operation was aimed at "neutralizing the capabilities of Houthis" to threaten Saudi Arabia, Yemen and international waterways.

Before that strike, Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree had promised a "harsh and painful" response and named Aramco's Dhahran headquarters and an Aramco-affiliated refinery in Riyadh as possible targets. Civilians were told to evacuate those sites and Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport, Al Jazeera reported.

Coalition spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki said four missiles and two drones were intercepted near Riyadh and that shrapnel fell on a residential area in Dhahran, according to BBC News. Saudi Civil Defense said debris from two intercepted missiles injured four people in Riyadh, two women, a man and a child, and caused limited damage to 15 homes.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Saudi cabinet, chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, said the Houthis would "bear the consequences" of their attacks on the kingdom.

How oil traded

Crude prices edged up as Asian trading got under way. Brent futures for December delivery were at $106.39 a barrel at 11:17 p.m. ET Tuesday, up about 0.7% from Tuesday's settlement of $105.69, according to Yahoo Finance data. U.S. West Texas Intermediate for November was at $94.86, up about 0.8%. CNBC put Brent at $107.02 earlier in the session. Brent had fallen 0.9% on Tuesday.

Hiroyuki Kikukawa, chief strategist at Nissan Securities Investment, said supply concern over the fighting was driving prices higher, but that expected increases in Russian diesel exports would likely limit sharp moves in either direction, according to a Reuters report published by CNA. He projected WTI would trade between $90 and $100 a barrel.

Aramco's Riyadh-listed shares closed at 25.78 riyals on Tuesday, little changed from Monday, in a session that ended hours before the attack. Wednesday's session is investors' first chance to react on the Saudi exchange.

Why Dhahran matters

The Houthis have been firing ballistic missiles and drones at Saudi targets for about a week in retaliation for the kingdom's backing of Yemeni government forces. Riyadh's main airport has been hit four times. A strike there on Saturday killed 13 people, and another person was killed in an attack on Sunday. Several international airlines have since suspended flights to Saudi Arabia.

An office tower is not an oil field, but the Dhahran complex houses a major operations center for a company that runs onshore and offshore fields, pipelines, refineries and export terminals. A hit there brings the fighting to the center of the kingdom's oil business, not just its airports.

It also lands on supply routes that are already strained. Tehran closed the Strait of Hormuz after the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran that began on Feb. 28, making the Bab el-Mandeb strait at the southern end of the Red Sea a more important route for Saudi energy exports. The Houthis swept down Yemen's Red Sea coast toward that strait last month before a government offensive pushed them back from the area closest to it.

U.S. President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday that the Houthis were "behaving very badly... and purposefully trying to drive up Oil Prices." He told reporters he "might" ask Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to intervene.

What it does not settle

The ministry did not say whether any Aramco operations were affected, and none of the accounts described damage beyond the office building. The ministry's published statement did not name the weapon or the attacker. Whether the Houthis act on their threats against the Riyadh refinery and airport, and whether the coalition strikes Sanaa again, remain open questions for Saudi energy supply and for oil prices.