The Houthis said on Tuesday they launched Saudi Aramco refinery drone strikes on the Jazan oil refinery on the Red Sea coast in southwest Saudi Arabia. The Iran-aligned Houthi group described the strike as precise and said it used a number of drones.
If the claim holds, it would be the third attack on the refinery in two weeks. Saudi Arabia had not immediately addressed the reported incident.
Jazan refinery under repeated fire
The Houthi source at the Houthi-controlled Yemeni News Agency Saba said the refinery was targeted “in response to the violation of Yemeni airspace over the Saada and Hajjah governorates.” That description places the attack inside a broader pattern: the refinery was already closed at the end of July after damage from a Houthi attack, and last week the Houthis said they had targeted Jazan again for the second attack in less than a week.
Tsvetana Paraskova, an energy and commodities journalist at OilPrice.com, wrote that the latest claim followed earlier warnings from the Houthis that they would target Saudi oil shipments and infrastructure in the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The sequence matters because each reported strike feeds the same operational problem for Saudi Arabia: the Jazan site has already been taken offline once, and repeated claims against the same facility keep the pressure on nearby shipping and fuel flows.
Saudi Arabia and Red Sea routes
Saudi Arabia re-routed part of its oil exports from Yanbu on the Red Sea to the Suez Canal and the Egyptian port of Sidi Kerir on the Mediterranean. Some Asian refiners reportedly asked Aramco to pick up its crude oil cargoes at Sidi Kerir because vessel owners were increasingly reluctant to pass through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to enter the Red Sea.
That leaves the immediate practical question at Jazan: did the reported drone strike cause additional damage or disruption at the refinery? Saudi Arabia had not immediately confirmed the reported incident, while the Houthis said the strike was precise, and the answer will determine whether the facility stays in the same constrained posture it has faced since the end of July.
Saada, Hajjah and the next move
The claim also ties the refinery to the Houthi grievance over airspace over Saada and Hajjah, which the group cited as the reason for targeting Jazan. For readers tracking Saudi Aramco refinery drone strikes, the key issue is no longer just whether the Houthis can reach the facility, but whether repeated claims against the same site alter how Aramco moves crude and how Saudi Arabia protects exports on the Red Sea side.
The next development that would change the picture is a Saudi response, because that would be the first official account of whether the reported attack hit equipment, interrupted operations, or passed without further damage.
