Saudi Aramco tells staff to evacuate Dhahran as clashes with Yemen's Houthis continue

Business Recorder · 22/10/2026، 12:55:37 PM

Saudi state oil company Aramco has told staff to evacuate its headquarters in Dhahran on the Gulf, six people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Thursday, as fighting between the world’s largest crude exporter and Yemen’s Houthis intensifies. Clashes between the Houthis and Yemen’s government have raged since the group pushed towards Bab el-Mandeb , a shipping chokepoint at the Red Sea’s mouth. The instruction to staff to evacuate the building and work remotely follows a wave of Houthi attacks on the kingdom, targeting the company and Saudi airports. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on what would be the first evacuation since the start of the Iran war. It was unclear what the reason for the evacuation was. The kingdom’s benchmark index dropped 2.5% on Thursday following the Aramco news, according to LSEG data. Oil prices rose to their highest since May on Thursday on concern over an escalation of the Middle East conflict and its impact on crude oil supplies from the world’s key exporting region. Houthis say they targeted Aramco in Yanbu Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a televised speech that the group had launched attacks on Aramco facilities in the Red Sea city of Yanbu and the Saudi defense ministry in the capital Riyadh. Saudi authorities did not confirm the attack. The Saudi-led coalition said on Thursday it had intercepted drones over Riyadh and Islam’s holy city of Medina, which is near Yanbu. The renewed fighting between Saudi Arabia and Houthi militias in recent weeks ended a 2022 UN-brokered truce, which had largely halted cross-border attacks, and opened another front in the US-Israeli ⁠war on Iran. The Houthis caused extensive damage to Aramco’s headquarters earlier this month when they struck the building, with fire spreading across several floors. Saudi Arabia has responded to Houthi attacks with a wave of strikes on missile launcher sites, vowing to protect the kingdom, and says it has intercepted many