Iran dismisses US oil attack accusation

The strike, claimed by Houthi rebels, leads to interruption of crude supply

DUBAI - Iran denied on Sunday it was involved in Yemen rebel drone attacks the previous day targeting the world's biggest oil processing facility and an oilfield in Saudi Arabia, just hours after the US top diplomat alleged that Teheran was behind the "unprecedented attack on the world's energy supply".

The attacks on Saturday claimed by Yemen's Houthi rebels resulted in "the temporary suspension of production operations" at the Abqaiq processing facility and the Khurais oilfield, Riyadh said.

That led to the interruption of an estimated 5.7 million barrels in crude supplies, authorities said, while pledging the kingdom's stockpiles would make up the difference.

While markets remain closed on Sunday, the attack could shock world energy prices. They also increased overall tensions in the region amid an escalating crisis between the United Stats and Iran over Teheran's unraveling nuclear deal with world powers.

Late on Saturday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo directly blamed Iran for the attack on Twitter, without offering evidence to support his claim.

"Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world's energy supply," Pompeo said on Twitter.

"The United States will work with our partners and allies to ensure that energy markets remain well supplied and Iran is held accountable for its aggression," the top US diplomat added.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi dismissed Pompeo's remarks as "blind and futile comments".

"The Americans adopted the 'maximum pressure' policy against Iran, which, due to its failure, is leaning toward 'maximum lies'," Mousavi said in a statement.

Later on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a tweet on Sunday that "Having failed at 'max pressure', US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo turning to 'max deceit'."

Zarif also tweeted: "Blaming Iran won't end disaster. Accepting our April'15 proposal to end war & begin talks may."

The strikes sparked fires on Saturday at the state-owned Aramco oil plants, as huge palls of smoke rose into the sky after the predawn attacks on Abqaiq and Khurais, two key Aramco facilities in eastern Saudi Arabia as the giant prepares for a much-anticipated stock listing.

The drones triggered multiple explosions, forcing state-owned Aramco to temporarily suspend production at the two facilities, interrupting about half of the company's total output, Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said.

The Houthi rebels said they launched "a large-scale operation involving 10 drones" on the facilities, the group's Al-Masirah television reported.

US President Donald Trump called Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to offer his support for the kingdom's defense, the White House said. The crown prince assured Trump that Saudi Arabia is "willing and able to confront and deal with this terrorist aggression", according to a news release from the Saudi Embassy in Washington.

Saudi Aramco describes its Abqaiq oil processing facility in Buqyaq as "the largest crude oil stabilization plant in the world".

The facility processes sour crude oil into sweet crude, then transports it onto transshipment points on the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea or to refineries for local production. Estimates suggest it can process up to 7 million barrels of crude oil a day. By comparison, Saudi Arabia produced 9.65 million barrels of crude oil a day in July.

The Khurais oilfield is believed to produce over 1 million barrels of crude oil a day. It has estimated reserves of over 20 billion barrels of oil, according to Aramco.

There was no immediate impact on global oil prices as markets were closed for the weekend.

Agencies

(China Daily 09/16/2019 page11)