PARIS: French energy giant TotalEnergies said Friday that it had shut down a major refinery on the eastern Gulf coast of Saudi Arabia after it was damaged during the Middle East war.
The Saudi energy ministry had announced Thursday “multiple attacks” recently on its oil and gas sites, including the SATORP refinery, a joint venture of TotalEnergies and the Saudi state-owned Aramco group.
No details on production impacts, nor the type of attack, were disclosed.
TotalEnergies cited only “incidents that occurred during the night of April 7 to 8, causing damage to one of the refinery’s two processing trains”.
No casualties were reported, and Total said both units were shut down as a precaution while assessing the damage.
READ MORE: Saudi Arabia’s oil pipeline bypassing Hormuz damaged in Iranian attack, source says
The Saudi energy ministry had referred to SATORP when announcing that recent attacks carried out by Iran against the kingdom’s energy infrastructure killed one person and impacted its oil production capacity.
A ministry official told the SPA news agency that the attacks “disrupted several production operations at key facilities”.
Aramco has a 62.5 percent stake in SATORP, with TotalEnergies holding the remaining 37.5 percent.
Iran has targeted energy infrastructure and other sites in neighbouring Gulf countries in retaliation for the attacks launched by the United States and Israel on February 28th.
The SATORP refinery, which began operations in 2014, can refine up to 460,000 barrels of crude oil a day, and produces around 22 million tons of refined products each year.
Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest crude exporter, producing around 10 million barrels a day.
Its energy ministry also said recent attacks included a pumping station for the East-West Pipeline, resulting in lost supply of 700,000 barrels per day.
“This pipeline is considered the main route for supplying global markets during this period,” the ministry said.
It also said the Manifa production site was hit, for a loss of some 300,000 barrels per day, bringing the country’s total cut in production capacity since the war started to around 600,000 barrels a day.
The output disruptions across the Gulf, and Iran’s de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz to tanker traffic, have propelled oil prices to their highest levels in years, sparking fears of widespread inflation that could hobble economies worldwide.
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