Saudi Arabia offers to transfer oil refining operations to Asian companies amid infrastructure damage

Saudi Arabia began seeking companies to refine its oil away from its territory on Tuesday, following concentrated Yemeni strikes targeting its oil infrastructure.

Exclusive – Al-Khabar Al-Yemeni:

Reuters quoted sources as saying that Saudi Arabia is negotiating with Asian refining companies to sell them crude oil, indicating that Saudi Arabia stipulates the purchase of oil directly from ports on the Gulf.

Through the sale of “Arab Heavy and Light” crude oil, Saudi Arabia aims to bypass the refining problem in addition to the current transportation crisis in light of the Yemeni blockade in Bab Al-Mandeb and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Saudi Arabia’s decision to export crude oil for refining in the Asian market adds further losses, as it owns dozens of refining companies and also loses several petroleum derivatives that it used to produce from refining crude oil.

Saudi Arabia is currently facing several compounded crises, especially with Yemen’s decision last month to begin imposing a ban on Saudi navigation.

The crisis did not stop at exporting oil through the most important export outlets in the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz, but extended to Saudi land, where the largest oil refineries in Jizan, Najran, and up to Buqayq in the east were subjected to concentrated Yemeni strikes.

Saudi Arabia’s decision to export crude indicates that the damage to its oil refineries is so great that it is unable to restart them in the foreseeable future, at the very least.