YEMEN’S Houthi rebels struck an oil storage tank in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah this week, satellite photos showed today.

Photos by Planet Labs PBC show Sunday’s damage  to the North Jeddah Bulk Plant, south-east of the city’s international airport.

That same storage tank, owned by the state oil giant Saudi Arabian Oil Co (Saudi Aramco), was hit by what the Houthis described as a cruise missile in a November 2020 attack.

The latest attack was followed by an unusual warning from Saudi Arabia that it is unable to guarantee that its oil production will not be affected by further attacks.

The repressive Gulf kingdom’s Foreign Ministry said that it “will not bear any responsibility for any shortage to oil supplies to global markets.” 

This means that global energy prices could be pushed even higher amid Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Saudi officials have refrained from making such comments in the past as statements can influence the price of oil and rattle global markets.

Analysist Torbjorn Soltvedt of risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft said: “There is little to suggest that the attack will have an immediate impact on oil supply. But there is no doubt Saudi Arabia is using it as an opportunity to put pressure on the United States at a testing time for US-Saudi relations.”

Gulf Arab oil producers have so far resisted pressure from the US’s Biden administration to pump more crude to help bring down oil prices.

After Sunday’s attack, a senior US official confirmed that the military has transferred a significant number of Patriot anti-missile interceptors to help Saudi Arabia thwart Houthi drone and missile attacks.