Saudi energy minister abdulaziz bin salman said in a statement Thursday that two oil facilities in the kingdom have been attacked, triggering a fire that has been brought under control and there were no casualties.However, the attacks have severely disrupted Saudi oil and gas production, affecting about 50 per cent of daily output and requiring the use of oil reserves to fill the gap.
According to his account, the attack cost Saudi Arabia 5.7 million barrels a day in lost crude oil production and 2 billion cubic feet (56.63 million cubic meters) of natural gas production.
Yemen's houthi rebels confirmed Thursday that they used 10 drones to attack the Saudi oil refinery in bugaig and an oil field in the houthis region.
The bugaig refinery, operated by oil and gas giant Saudi aramco, is about 330 kilometers northeast of Riyadh, the capital.According to the state-owned company, the bugeiger refinery is "the largest crude oil purification plant in the world", with a capacity of 7m barrels a day.
Hureis is located about 190 kilometers southwest of the bougueiger refinery.The attacked field is Saudi Arabia's second largest, producing 1m barrels a day.Aramco says the field holds more than 20 billion barrels of crude oil.
The attack on the oil facilities comes as aramco accelerates plans to restart its initial public offering.Arameen nasser, aramco's chief executive, said the company had begun to resume production and that progress would be updated within 48 hours.