Satellite images show black smoke rising from multiple Saudi oil facilities
Although the United States and Iran have continued to maintain a ceasefire in recent days, missiles and drones flying in the Middle East have not completely stopped. According to images from the European Space Agency's Sentinel-2 earth observation satellite, thick black smoke plumes rose from many key energy facilities in Saudi Arabia between last weekend and this Monday. Among them, images captured by satellites on July 27 showed that Saudi Aramco’s Abqaiq oil processing facility was suspected of being attacked. The facility is the world's largest oil stabilization plant, with a processing capacity of approximately 7 million barrels per day.
Although the United States and Iran have continued to maintain a ceasefire in recent days, missiles and drones flying in the Middle East have not completely stopped. According to images from the European Space Agency's Sentinel-2 earth observation satellite, thick black smoke plumes rose from many key energy facilities in Saudi Arabia between last weekend and this Monday. Among them, images captured by satellites on July 27 showed that Saudi Aramco’s Abqaiq oil processing facility was suspected of being attacked. The facility is the world's largest oil stabilization plant, with a processing capacity of approximately 7 million barrels per day. More importantly, the Abqaiq facility is located at the starting point of Saudi Arabia’s east-west pipeline, which provides a key alternative route for Saudi Arabia to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and transport crude oil to the Red Sea. This facility was attacked by Houthi armed forces in 2019, causing Saudi oil production to be halved. (Source: "Sentinel-2" satellite) In addition to the Abqaiq plant, Saudi Arabia's Hawiye natural gas field also saw "black smoke rising" on Monday. Previously, last weekend, the Sentinel-2 satellite captured a fire in a storage tank at an oil refinery in the Saudi Red Sea port city of Jizan. It should be noted that oil production facilities also have facilities called flaring towers, which are used to safely burn and process excess, waste or emergency release gas. Therefore, "smoke" from an oil processing facility does not necessarily mean it is under attack. But the current situation is obviously not a normal production and operation state. No similar burning has been seen at the Abqaiq facility in other satellite images so far this month. Satellite images also show extremely high humidity around a giant spherical tank at the Abqaiq facility. These spherical tanks are key facilities for separating oil and gas mixtures in refineries. It is not clear why there is such high humidity in this area. The Saudi Defense Ministry disclosed on Monday that the kingdom had intercepted several drones launched by pro-Iranian groups in Iraq. At the same time, the Houthi armed forces in Yemen also claimed to have launched an attack on Saudi oil facilities. Houthi armed spokesman Yahya said the operation was in response to the alleged intrusion of Saudi drones into Yemeni airspace. Last week, Yemen's Houthi armed forces joined the current round of conflicts in the Middle East and announced a shipping blockade of Saudi ports on the Red Sea coast. Saudi Arabia responded with air strikes against Houthi military facilities in the Yemeni port of Hodeidah and vowed to protect shipping safety. Commodity ship traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait fell to 11 ships, the lowest in months, as Houthi rebels attacked Saudi facilities, according to shipping data released by Kpler on Monday.