Saudi Arabia sought to reassure the world’s energy industry that escalating attacks on the kingdom would not disrupt its role as a major oil supplier.
“The word ‘fear’ in the Saudi dictionary does not exist,” Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said on Monday at the opening of the WPC Energy Congress. “We, as Saudis, are fearless, combatant and determined people.”
The remarks came after King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh was struck four times in five days, emphasising the growing security risks facing the world’s biggest crude exporter amid the Iran war. A missile attack on the airport on Saturday killed 12 people and injured 309, Saudi authorities said. Another projectile struck the airport on Sunday evening, killing one person and injuring 11.
The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen blamed the Iran-backed Houthi rebels for Saturday’s attack.
But Riyadh is to press ahead with a week of high-level energy meetings, including Sunday’s International Energy Forum ministerial talks and the WPC congress, which the kingdom is hosting for the first time.
“Riyadh is the capital of energy security and your presence here today proves that,” Prince Abdulaziz told delegates. “Our gathering today does not mean that risks have disappeared.”
The attacks have sharpened focus on Saudi Arabia’s ability to keep oil flowing during periods of conflict, particularly as threats mount around the Strait of Hormuz and Bab Al Mandeb strait, two of the world’s most important energy chokepoints.
Prince Abdulaziz said Saudi Arabia’s ability to withstand disruption was the result of decades of investment in storage, redundancy and alternative export routes. “Resilience is built before a crisis begins,” he added.
He referred to the kingdom’s East-West pipeline, which carries crude from eastern oilfields to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, allowing exports to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. The flow was halted after Houthi attacks in September, before recovering to about 5.8 million barrels per day by October 6, compared with capacity of about seven million bpd.
The disruption showed the importance of restoring operations quickly, Prince Abdulaziz said. Resilience depends not only on infrastructure but also on domestic expertise, he added.
“Pipelines do not repair themselves. Our systems do not restore themselves. Facilities do not restart themselves. People do,” he said.
At Sunday’s IEF meeting, he pledged that Saudi Arabia would continue to supply domestic and international customers “regardless of circumstances”.
The gathering took place against an increasingly volatile market backdrop. Brent crude hovered at about $104 a barrel on Monday as the Riyadh attacks and strikes on two tankers near the Strait of Hormuz and Oman added to geopolitical risks.
“The events of recent weeks are serious,” Prince Abdulaziz said. “Our response must be equally serious.”