Reuters: Saudi Aramco delays Jazan oil refinery restart to August 30

Saudi Aramco has pushed back the tentative restart of its 400,000-barrel-per-day Jazan oil refinery by about two weeks to August 30, according to an alert from industry monitor IIR seen by Reuters.

The report said in the three months preceding the shutdown, the refinery exported an average of 200,000 barrels per day, while its designed processing capacity is twice that volume.

The refinery, which halted operations at the end of July, was targeted in another attack on August 9.

Yemen’s Ansar Allah movement, commonly known as the Houthis, claimed responsibility for the strike.

A representative of the group said the drone had “precisely hit” the refinery, describing the attack as retaliation for Saudi drone flights over Yemen’s Saada and Hajjah provinces.

Saudi authorities confirmed that a fire broke out at one of the refinery’s facilities but did not disclose what caused it.

Saudi Aramco has not commented on the status of the refinery’s restart. Operations had previously been scheduled to resume on August 15.

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov