Aramco rocket attack coincides secret talks in S. Arabia

On Monday morning, the spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces says they targeted the Saudi Aramco oil company in the Red Sea city of Jeddah. Brigadier General Yahya Saree said Yemeni fighters fired a 'Quds 2' rocket at a distribution station of Aramco.

The news was still fresh when Reuters reported that the Israeli regime's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly visited Saudi Arabia on Sunday and met Bin Salman and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo there.

To shed light on the issue, senior energy expert and the President of Vienna Energy Research Group Fereydoun Barkeshli provided us with his insights over the attack and its consequences and impact on the international oil market.

"The Jedda site is considered one of the most protected facilities that ARAMCO owns and operates in the heart of the Kingdom. The facilities are some 600 KM from the Yemeni border with Saudi Arabia," he told Mehr news in an interview.

"The missiles were that caused the widespread fire and damaged the facilities were fired at around 8.00 and 9.30 PM November 22," the expert said.

"This is the time that high level Israeli and US officials were in a closed-door meeting in the capital. Mohammad Bin Salman is said to have been in the meeting, while the Saudi foreign minister was not involved or even informed," he noted.

"What surprised the Saudis most, was the timing and accurate coincidence of rocket attacks with the highly confidential session," Berkeshli highlighted.

"However, the news and the impact of the attacks on the largest world oil company, ARAMCO on international oil markets is yet to be seen," he said.

"In the morning European markets were cautious and prices were up marginally. Nevertheless, oil price hikes at times oil huge oil glut is still significant. We got to wait for New York Stock Exchange later this late afternoon Tehran time," he added.

He continued that "ARAMCO share prices that initiated its first IPO back October 2019 that opened at $38.7 per share and closed at $37.4 already lost 7 percent of its current market value."

"One Saudi market analyst mentioned that ARAMC seems to have run into trouble," he informed.

"Given the fact that oil demand is already in its worst shape due to pandemic and prices are still shy of $40 per barrel, future oil Bin Salman’s ambitious economic reforms are overshadowed by a wishful vision and oil diplomacy that is not simply working."