Saudi Aramco instructed employees on Thursday, 22 October, to evacuate its headquarters in Dhahran and work remotely, according to Reuters, Bloomberg and AFP, a day after deadly Houthi strikes hit an airport and an oilfield in the kingdom’s Eastern Province.
An order with no official explanation
The instruction was confirmed to Reuters by six people with knowledge of the matter, while Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the situation, said the building was cleared after an alarm sounded inside the complex. The cause of the alarm was not immediately known, and it was unclear how long staff would be asked to work from home.
Neither Aramco nor Saudi Arabia’s Energy Ministry responded to requests for comment from the two agencies. There was no immediate indication that the evacuation had affected the company’s oil production or exports.
The Dhahran complex is the nerve centre of the state oil giant, the world’s largest crude exporter. It sits in the Eastern Province, home to much of the kingdom’s oil infrastructure, including the Ghawar field, the Abqaiq processing plant and the Ras Tanura export terminal.
Headquarters already hit this month
The evacuation comes little more than a week after the headquarters itself was struck. Reuters, citing people familiar with the incident, reported that a Houthi attack earlier in October caused a fire that spread across several floors. Bloomberg said a tower in the compound was hit, damaging about three floors.
The order followed a series of deadly strikes. On Wednesday evening, an attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, close to Dhahran, killed two people, a Saudi citizen and an Indian national, and wounded eight, according to the General Authority of Civil Aviation. The authority later said flights had resumed and air traffic had returned to normal.
The same day, two people were killed when Saudi air defences intercepted a drone aimed at a facility at Aramco’s Shaybah oilfield, the Energy Ministry said. Bloomberg reported that the Shaybah attack did not affect production.
Competing claims from the Houthis and the coalition
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a televised statement that the group had targeted Aramco facilities in Yanbu, on the Red Sea coast, as well as the Saudi defence ministry in Riyadh. Saudi authorities did not confirm those claims. The Saudi-led coalition said it had intercepted and destroyed drones over the Riyadh and Medina regions.
Fighting between the Iran-aligned Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s internationally recognised government has intensified in recent weeks, effectively ending the UN-brokered truce of 2022 that had largely halted cross-border attacks. The Houthis have repeatedly targeted Saudi airports this month and warned airlines against using the kingdom’s airspace.
Foreign governments step up precautions
The deteriorating security picture has prompted foreign governments to act. The US State Department has ordered non-emergency diplomats and their families to leave its missions in Saudi Arabia.
For Aramco, the move to remote work marks a rare disruption at the heart of its operations. As of Thursday, the company had not said publicly when staff would be allowed to return to the Dhahran complex.
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