What happened

Saudi Aramco fully shut down its 400,000 bbl/d Jazan refinery on 27 July after a Houthi attack reported two days earlier damaged the Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle complex and oil tank-farm area, according to IIR Energy reporting cited by Reuters. The Houthis said they targeted the refinery again on 9 August with a drone. Saudi Arabia's Energy Ministry confirmed a fire at a facility belonging to the refinery but did not state its cause; no casualties were reported. On 13 August, the Houthi-controlled SABA news agency cited an anonymous military source claiming a further strike on the refinery using two drones. On 18 August, a Houthi military source made another claim through SABA, saying that a number of drones had precisely struck the refinery. The group described both claims as responses to alleged Saudi violations of Yemeni airspace in Sa'dah and Hajjah. Saudi officials and Aramco had not publicly confirmed either the 13 or 18 August claim, associated damage, casualties or additional production impact at the time of reporting. IIR subsequently moved the expected restart from 15 August to 30 August. Reuters linked the prolonged Jazan outage and the 10 August TANECO strike in Russia to a sharp tightening in global diesel supply: US ultra-low-sulfur diesel futures rose 7.4% to $4.19 per gallon on 10 August and European diesel refining margins rose nearly 10%. US distillate inventories were 107.2 million barrels on 31 July, the lowest for that time of year in three decades. Those market figures provide context and are not presented as damage caused solely by Jazan.

When cited sources give different casualty, damage or spill figures for this event, they’re reported side by side above rather than merged into one number. See how confidence levels work.