World's oil supply cushion is 'scarily thin,' says Aramco chief - Politico

The IEA is releasing another 100 million barrels of emergency oil and fuels, but global inventories are rapidly shrinking amid the prolonged Hormuz crisis. The U. S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve has fallen to 331.2 million barrels, its lowest level since 1983, approaching the estimated operational minimum of 250–300 million barrels.

Yemen's Houthis said Wednesday they will resume attacks on Saudi airports and oil facilities "in the coming days," after Saudi authorities reported a limited fire at Aramco's office complex in Dhahran during a Houthi missile attack Tuesday night. The Houthis claimed strikes on Aramco facilities in Dhahran, an Aramco refinery in Riyadh and King Khalid International Airport. The Houthis called the sites legitimate targets and urged international shipping companies, civilians and workers to evacuate Saudi airports and oil facilities. Maj. Gen. Turki Al-Malki, spokesman for the Saudi-led Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen, said a ballistic missile aimed at Dhahran on Tuesday was intercepted and destroyed, and that debris from the interception fell on a residential area. Three people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters the fire at the Dhahran complex spread across several floors. Two of them said operations at Aramco were continuing normally, with employees working from home. Two regional officials told the Associated Press that the top three floors of a building used by senior Aramco executives were damaged. One official said the CEO’s office was among those hit.

The Houthis have targeted an administrative building belonging to Saudi Arabia’s Aramco in the eastern city of Dhahran, an official at the Ministry of Energy told the Saudi SPA news agency. Authorities ⁠responded to a fire caused by the attack on Tuesday, ⁠the ministry ⁠said in a statement. No injuries or fatalities were reported. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Yemeni families’ search for missing loved ones hindered by new fightinglist 2 of 4Deadly Houthi attacks in Yemen’s Taiz as government forces advance in Mariblist 3 of 4Iran sees ‘false flag’ operations after UK blames IRGC for airbase incidentlist 4 of 4Yemeni government launches air strikes on Houthi positionsend of listThe attack on the headquarters of Saudi’s national oil company came after Yemen’s Houthis warned all employees and civilians near Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities to evacuate, calling the sites “a legitimate target” earlier on Tuesday. The warning from the group’s spokesman, Yahya Saree, was prompted by an evacuation order from the Saudi-led coalition urging civilians to evacuate Yemeni Oil Company’s al-Sabah central station in the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa.

Israeli settlers have attacked European diplomats, including a French mayor, near the Palestinian village of Taybeh in the occupied West Bank. The delegation was visiting Palestinian olive harvesters on Saturday when the Israeli attackers confronted the group. The attack comes a day after settlers assaulted a US journalist north of Ramallah. In Saturday’s incident, the settlers targeted Belgium’s consul general, French and Polish diplomats and Catholic representatives, Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said. “A French mayor was assaulted and a Belgian vehicle damaged,” Prevot said, linking the attack to what he called Israel’s “illegal settlement policy” and pledging to push for further European Union sanctions. French mayor Bernard Baudoux, who was assaulted, told the AFP news agency that the violence suggests that “there is a tolerance on the part of the Israeli government” towards settler violence. Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah, said the settlers surrounded the diplomats’ vehicles, pelted them with stones and smashed their windows.