Saudi Arabia Successfully Contains Fallout of Attacks

Saudi Arabia has succeeded in absorbing the first shock caused by the attacks on two Aramco facilities in Abqaiq and Khurais.

The Wall Street Journal quoted Saudi officials, speaking under the conditions of anonymity, as saying that the Kingdom is racing to restore about a third of the stalled production before the market opens on Monday.

This comes as a first step towards restoring total production at full speed.

“We should be able to have 2 million barrels a day back online…by tomorrow,” said a person familiar with the matter.

Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman, for his part, had announced that the Kingdom will use its reserve inventories to compensate for any shortfall in supplies.

He also noted that the attacks “resulted in a temporary suspension of production at Abqaiq and Khurais plants.”

The strikes knocked out 5.7 million barrels of daily production, and officials said they still believe they can fully replace it in coming days. That would require tapping oil inventories and using other facilities to process crude.

Rapidan Energy Group estimated Saudi Arabia has 188 million barrels of oil on hand, or roughly 37 days of Abqaiq’s processing capacity.

“Saudi Arabia has sufficient experience and is transparent when reporting damage in details--this reassures customers. The Kingdom also has sufficient stocks to meet customer and market need next to its ability to repair the damage and restore the two facilities to work as soon as possible,” Kuwaiti oil expert Kamel al-Harami told Asharq Al-Awsat.