Saudi coalition intercepts drones targeting energy sites: report

Saudi Arabia's coalition in Yemen said that it destroyed nine booby-trapped drones aimed at energy sites and civilian sites on March 25, state television Al Arabiya reported.

The statement by the coalition offered no details on which energy facilities in the country were targeted.

There has been a series of attacks reported over recent days by Yemen's Houthi militants against Saudi targets. On March 23, Saudi forces intercepted an explosives laden boat in the Red Sea, through which around 7 million b/d of crude oil transits, while late March 22 Saudi forces intercepted a ballistic missile that was fired towards the southern city of Jizan.

On March 20, Houthi militants targeted Aramco's Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Co. (Yasref) refinery, resulting in temporary reduction of its output.

Saudi forces also foiled attempts on March 19 to target energy infrastructure in Yanbu, Khamis Mushait and Dhahran al-Janoub using a ballistic missile and several armed drones.

The hit to the refinery and repeated attacks prompted the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs to issue a statement on March 21 that the country was not responsible for any supply outages in the oil markets if attacks against its energy infrastructure by the Houthi rebels continued unabated.

The ministry called for international recognition of the threat posed by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis against the kingdom's oil and gas facilities and global energy security.

According to the S&P Global Oil Security Sentinel, the kingdom's oil and energy infrastructure has been targeted over 40 times since 2017, with the biggest incident occurring in 2019 when drone attacks hit the giant Abqaiq oil processing facility.