Saudi Arabian oil processing facility attacked

[FaxModem1]

CNN

Attack on Saudi oil field a game-changer in Gulf confrontation
Analysis by Tim Lister, CNN

Updated 12:21 PM ET, Sun September 15, 2019
Reporter: 'Startlingly dangerous moment' in Middle East

(CNN)The attack on the world's largest oil processing plant early Saturday morning is a dramatic escalation in the confrontation between Iran and Saudi Arabia -- even if the Iranians didn't fire the drones or missiles responsible.

Several projectiles struck the Abqaiq plant, starting a series of fires that quickly took out nearly half Saudi's oil production -- 5% of the global daily output -- and sparking fears about the security of the world's oil supplies.
It's unclear when Abqaiq, which is operated by Saudi giant Aramco, will be fully operational again.
A satellite image taken Saturday, September 14, 2019, shows thick black smoke rising from the Abqaiq oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia.
A satellite image taken Saturday, September 14, 2019, shows thick black smoke rising from the Abqaiq oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia.
Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed the attack, saying that 10 drones had targeted Abqaiq, as well as the Khurais oilfield. But attacks of this scale and accuracy would represent a sudden and remarkable increase in Houthi capabilities, and neither the United States nor Saudi Arabia is buying the claim.
The United States swiftly discounted the Houthi claim. Late Saturday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted: "Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world's energy supply." And he added: "There is no evidence the attacks came from Yemen."
Pompeo blames Iran for drone attacks on Saudi oil field
Pompeo blames Iran for drone attacks on Saudi oil field
In response Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif accused Pompeo of engaging in deception. He wrote on Twitter: "Having failed at 'max pressure', @SecPompeo's turning to 'max deceit' US & its clients are stuck in Yemen because of illusion that weapon superiority will lead to military victory. Blaming Iran won't end disaster."
But where did this attack originate and who was behind it?
The Houthis have sent dozens of drones and short-range ballistic missiles against Saudi Arabia in the past two years. Many have been intercepted by Saudi air defenses; others have fallen harmlessly. A very few have caused limited damage and casualties.

Houthi drones are based on Iranian models, themselves often developed from North Korean technology. They are mostly short-range, up to 186 miles (300 km). However, a UN experts' panel reported in January on the deployment of longer-range drones "that would allow the Houthi forces to strike targets deep into Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates."
The UN panel said it had information that one had crashed within 18 miles (30 km) of Riyadh.
Even so, the maximum range of this system, dubbed the UAV-X, would be between 740 and 930 miles (1,200 and 1,500 km), depending on wind conditions. The distance from Houthi-held parts of Yemen to Abqaiq is about 800 miles (1,300 km).
A source with knowledge of the incident told CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen late Saturday that preliminary indications were the drones/missiles "did not originate from Yemen and likely originated from Iraq." A second source in the Gulf region told CNN that while there was no proof yet, the indications were that the attack originated in southern Iraq.

Pro-Iranian militia are well-entrenched in southern Iraq, and the Quds Force, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards unit in charge of foreign operations, has a presence there. Earlier this year, some regional analysts assessed that a drone attack on a pumping station at Afif in northern Saudi Arabia originated in Iraq. But no hard evidence was produced.
The Iraqi government Sunday issued a statement rejecting reports "about its land being used to attack Saudi oil facilities."
The Houthis themselves have suggested, without providing any evidence, that they had help from inside the kingdom for these latest attacks. Their spokesman Yahya Saree said the operation followed "an accurate intelligence operation and advance monitoring and cooperation of honorable people inside the kingdom."
Analysts take that to mean elements of the restive Shia population in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province. Abqaiq lies between the predominantly Shia area of Qatif and Ahsa, which has a substantial minority Shia population. But they caution that it's in the Houthis' interests to try to stir internal tensions and it seems far-fetched that local people could have assisted such an attack.

Wherever the attack originated and whoever pulled the trigger, these attacks are a step-change in what has already become a dangerous confrontation, with the sabotage of merchant shipping in the Gulf and the acute deterioration of the situation in Yemen, as well as several aerial attacks on Shia militia camps in Iraq in recent months.
While not confirming it was behind the attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel is prepared to strike at pro-Iranian actors wherever they are considered a threat, including in Iraq.
No previous attack, since the Yemen conflict began four years ago, has interrupted oil supplies. This one has taken 5.7 million barrels a day off the market and demonstrated the vulnerability of the pumping heart of Saudi Arabia's oil industry.
Saudi Arabia has invested heavily in advanced air defense systems. Ayham Kamal at the Eurasia Group says that the "critical problem for the kingdom is structural; most of Saudi Arabia's air defense systems are designed to defend against traditional threats and are ill-equipped to tackle asymmetrical aerial threats such as drones."

That vulnerability is enhanced when so many essential parts of the infrastructure -- "storage, processing, and compressor trains -- are located within a small area," he adds.
The attacks have drawn in the international community, with the US declaring that it is ready to open its Strategic Petroleum Reserve if necessary, and President Donald Trump calling Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
At present, there is plentiful oil on the market. OPEC and its producing ally Russia have cut production this year to support prices. But Saudi Arabia is normally the organization's "swing producer" with the ability to reduce or increase the flow as required. That ability is crimped for now.
Much depends on the damage reports, and what "work-arounds" might be possible to restore full production and soothe markets' nerves. "The most critical elements of Saudi Arabia's oil infrastructure include several redundancies," Kamal says.
How Saudi Arabia will respond in other ways -- such as redoubling its military campaign against the Houthis in Yemen -- is yet to be seen.
CNN's Aqeel Najim and Sara Mazloumsaki contributed to this report.

If you haven't filled up today, you might want to, as prices will probably rise rapidly rather soon.

[FaxModem1]

Alarabiya

Trump tells Saudi Crown Prince US ready to help protect Kingdom’s security

The US President stressed the negative impact of the terrorist attacks that targeted two Aramco facilities on the American and global economy. (File photo)
Staff writer, Al Arabiya EnglishSaturday, 14 September 2019Text size A A A
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman received a phone call from US President Donald Trump following the drone attacks on oil production facilities in the Kingdom.

During the phone call on Saturday, Trump also affirmed Washington’s readiness to cooperate with the Kingdom to supports its security and stability, according to a statement on the Saudi Press Agency.

The US President stressed the negative impact of the terrorist attacks that targeted two Aramco facilities on the American and global economy.

“For his part, the Crown Prince stressed that the Kingdom has the will and ability to confront and deal with this terrorist aggression,” the statement on SPA added.

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Interior said on Saturday that drone attacks caused fires at two Saudi Aramco facilities, adding that the blazes are under control.

One of the facilities is located in Abqaiq, near Dammam in the Kingdom's Eastern Province. The other facility is located in the Hijrat Khurais oilfield.

Last Update: Saturday, 14 September 2019 KSA 22:04 - GMT 19:04

Trump talking out of his ass, or dragging the US into a war? You decide.

[Gandalf]

An actual full blown war? Probably not. It's more likely to be a TV friendly missile strike or something.

It puts approval rating friemdly explosions on CNN without having to worry about the approval rating hostile images of dead American soldiers.

[K. A. Pital]

Fuck Saudis. Hope they lose 100% of their capacity soon for what they are doing in Yemen and their funding of ISIS and other islamists.

[Broomstick]

Alarabiya

Trump tells Saudi Crown Prince US ready to help protect Kingdom’s security....

Trump talking out of his ass, or dragging the US into a war? You decide.

It's not like the US hasn't gone to war over oil before, or the Saudis haven't used the US as mercenaries. See 1990-1991 Gulf War as an example. Because, let's be frank here - if the area didn't have oil no one would have given a damn about the invasion/annexation of Kuwait, and the Saudis were worried Saddam might try to move into their territory at some point.

[The Romulan Republic]

Fuck Saudis. Hope they lose 100% of their capacity soon for what they are doing in Yemen and their funding of ISIS and other islamists.

I have sympathy for the Saudi people, and the hardship this undoubtably would bring to them, but as for the monarchy... yeah. That and the oil industry is actively threatening the entire fucking planet via climate change.

On this point, at least, we are in complete agreement.

[AniThyng]

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but when oil prices spike and oil supply is restricted and cause knock on effects for transportation, power, heating and food supply... Ordinary people die and governments fall.

[His Divine Shadow]

It's interesting, because ordinary people will die and governments will fail from climate change too, brought on by oil usage.

[AniThyng]

It's interesting, because ordinary people will die and governments will fail from climate change too, brought on by oil usage.

Touche.

[Xisiqomelir]

Wow these are PRECISE hits!

Didn't we have an industry hand in the forum? How long does it take to patch these and get things running again after you put the fires out? Or do they all need to be ripped out and thrown away for structural integrity?

[Elfdart]

Look at the truck at the bottom right. Those are some huge targets.

I'm impressed that there were no casualties.

A friend of the family who keeps tabs on the oil industry (he explained Gulf Oil's role in the war in Angola to my grandfather and me over 30 years ago) told me that everyone's expecting prices to ease back down since the Saudis insist they can repair the damage in a few weeks.

Oh, and fuck the Saudis.

[madd0ct0r]

Ive seen at least one conspiracy theory that it is self inflicted to blame iran.

[K. A. Pital]

Ive seen at least one conspiracy theory that it is self inflicted to blame iran.

That would be cosmically stupid. An acquaintance of mine operates a part of plant of similar size. Such fires can spread quickly and this could have led to total loss of the facility so that rebuilding would have taken many months. This is why it is expected of knowledgeable workers to put themselves in harms way when blocking the fire paths even at significant risk to life and limb.

[Tribble]

Ive seen at least one conspiracy theory that it is self inflicted to blame iran.

That would be cosmically stupid. An acquaintance of mine operates a part of plant of similar size. Such fires can spread quickly and this could have led to total loss of the facility so that rebuilding would have taken many months. This is why it is expected of knowledgeable workers to put themselves in harms way when blocking the fire paths even at significant risk to life and limb.

Even so IMO it’s still plausible that the US and/or Saudi Arabia did it to pin it on Iran. I don’t trust a damn word the US says on this.

[K. A. Pital]

I don’t trust either the Salafist fiefdom or the US, of course. I just feel the Salafist fiefdom getting payback for its Yemen bombings is a more likely scenario than false flag, but nothing would amaze me.

[Coop D'etat]

Ive seen at least one conspiracy theory that it is self inflicted to blame iran.

That would be cosmically stupid. An acquaintance of mine operates a part of plant of similar size. Such fires can spread quickly and this could have led to total loss of the facility so that rebuilding would have taken many months. This is why it is expected of knowledgeable workers to put themselves in harms way when blocking the fire paths even at significant risk to life and limb.

Even so IMO it’s still plausible that the US and/or Saudi Arabia did it to pin it on Iran. I don’t trust a damn word the US says on this.

Not really, you false flag a symbolic target to incite conflict. You don't false flag to advertise the vulnerability of your key economic and strategic asset and make yourself look weak to the neighbours. Its not a matter of trustworthiness, its that this move did real damage and you don't do that to yourself for propaganda purposes.

[bilateralrope]

Ive seen at least one conspiracy theory that it is self inflicted to blame iran.

That would be cosmically stupid. An acquaintance of mine operates a part of plant of similar size. Such fires can spread quickly and this could have led to total loss of the facility so that rebuilding would have taken many months. This is why it is expected of knowledgeable workers to put themselves in harms way when blocking the fire paths even at significant risk to life and limb.

Even so IMO it’s still plausible that the US and/or Saudi Arabia did it to pin it on Iran. I don’t trust a damn word the US says on this.

What about the word of the Houthi rebels who claim they did it ?

Why would they say they did it if it was a false flag operation ?

It seems more likely to me that the Houthi rebels did it, but the US/Saudi Arabia want to blame Iran.

[Elfdart]

Remember that Pompeo, the point man on this attempt to start a war with Iran, was also in charge of the bungled putsch against Maduro in Venezuela. One major part of that butt-fumble coup was the claim that Venezuelan troops had torched trucks full of humanitarian supplies at the Venezuela-Colombia border. CNN got all breathless about how that dastardly fiend maduro could do such a thing...

Until video footage showed it was Guaido's own thugs who set the trucks on fire by throwing Molotovs at them [4:50]:



So I put nothing past this bunch.

[Darth Yan]

Jimmy adore? Really? This is the guy who openly swallows Russian propaganda about syria. He’s not a good source

[Elfdart]

He's a great source because he's not a liar, which is more than be said for the US foreign policy establishment and their puke funnels in the media.

If every journalist or commentator who reports on the US-backed jihadists in Syria (like Al Qaeda) is spreading Russian propaganda, doesn't that mean anyone denouncing the Syrians' efforts against them is flacking for Al Qaeda?

[Darth Yan]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ztVMib1T4T4

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Jimmy_Dore#Syria

He got basic info wrong (failing to know the Kurds have a functioning society in the north, saying Aleppo was the capital when DAMASCUS is the capital, citing an openly pro regime journalist as “independent” openly lying about what people have said, ignoring that the UN has repeatedly found Assad guilty of chemical attacks on his own people....)

Jimmy Dore is an idiot, a charlatan AND a liar.

[Ziggy Stardust]

I watched that video, Elfdart. Who the hell is this moron?

He seems to legitimately believe that one guy wandering through a grocery store in Caracas marveling at how much meat is on display is somehow enough proof to debunk the claim that there are food shortages in Venezuela (which is based on empirical studies by the UN, WHO, UNICEF, WFP, and dozens of others), which is all evidence that USAID is secretly smuggling weapons into the country. So he's either dishonest, stupid, or both, so I don't know why I should trust what he says about anything else.

[Elfdart]

I'm sorry you didn't the least bit interesting the part where Guaido supporters (some of whom disguised themselves as Red Cross workers -a violation of international law, by the way) set fire to their own trucks and claimed Maduro did it. I found it interesting that they were joined by Pompeo, Bolton, Abrams and the media, who regurgitated the lie for three weeks because any time Uncle Sam wants to incite hostilities with Brown People in a foreign land, the media cheer like adolescent girls for the latest boy band.

As for Jimmy Dore, he is a self-described "jagoff nightclub comedian" and stoner who enjoys ball-busting establishment media and politicians -especially war whores like Chris "Tweety" Matthews:



The central premise of his show is that crazy and dopey as Dore and his guests can be (they have the Tinfoil Hat Comedy Hour), their track record is better than that of CNN, MSNBC, Fox et al. After all, if a "jagoff nightclub comedian" can help expose Milo Yiannopoulos as an advocate for Nazism and pedophilia at the very time the NYT, LATimes, Mother Jones and other outlets were too busy hailing that piece of shit as the patron saint of Free Speech to notice, then maybe those outlets are not to be trusted.

[mr friendly guy]

I watched that video, Elfdart. Who the hell is this moron?

He seems to legitimately believe that one guy wandering through a grocery store in Caracas marveling at how much meat is on display is somehow enough proof to debunk the claim that there are food shortages in Venezuela (which is based on empirical studies by the UN, WHO, UNICEF, WFP, and dozens of others), which is all evidence that USAID is secretly smuggling weapons into the country. So he's either dishonest, stupid, or both, so I don't know why I should trust what he says about anything else.

Jimmy Dore is a comedian who has an anti establishment bent. He gives voice to some "independent" journalists such as Abby Martin. Generally he makes sense on things like the shrinking American middle class, medicare for all, living wage (definitions will vary on that) etc. He is a strong Bernie Sanders supporter, and his strategy seems to be lets clean out our house first then deal with Trump (which has its own pros can cons, as it could be used by opponents as shrilling for the other side).

It’s a bit more complicated on the anti interventionist front, not that I am opposed to that idea, its how he presents them that could potentially be problematic. For example he will argue <insert country US hates here> is not as bad as mainstream media portrays or <insert leader here> does have support from the average people in their country. Given how shit mainstream media is, the two point seems reasonable, although there is the risk of going the other way and portraying say Maduro in much better light.

He also opposes Russiagate, being out of the gates to label it fake, just as how some progressives jumped onto guilty. Note some other antiestablishment types would argue even if Russia did it, its less important than other issues like medicare for all. Jimmy Dore came out and said its not real, or grossly exaggerated. He is not completely wrong about some parts of it, like for example his statement that a few Russian placed Facebook adds which has small number of views is much less influential than regular election advertising done by either side, ergo as far as interference goes, its pretty weak. I do get the feeling though, if you ask him, he would say Russia didn’t actually try anything at all. That’s just suspicion though, I don’t recall outright saying it, to be fair to Dore. Currently he is feeling triumphant in the sense that the Mueller report didn’t bring down Trump, and rightly or wrongly, that boosts his credibility.

A few other posters here have posted or commented support on Jimmy Dore videos before, including Vympel and His Divine Shadow. Disclaimer, I myself have made reference to Jimmy Dore before in the past, although that was a relatively uncontroversial subject.

[Darth Yan]

Problematic? Dore openly cheerleads a monster like Assad even though multiple UN investigations concluded he’s a mass murdering lunatic. So no. He’s got no credibility. I mean dear god he couldn’t even get the Capital right and elfdart expects people to take him seriously?

Here’s a hint. Just because the US opposes him doesn’t mean he’s a good guy