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

Saudi Aramco has instructed staff to evacuate its headquarters in Dhahran and work remotely as fighting between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis intensifies, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing six people familiar with the matter.

The reason for the evacuation was unclear. Aramco did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The move would mark the first evacuation of the headquarters since the start of the Iran war.

The evacuation order follows a series of Houthi attacks targeting Saudi Arabia, including the oil company’s facilities and the kingdom’s airports.

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group had attacked Aramco facilities in the Red Sea port city of Yanbu and Saudi Arabia’s Defence Ministry in Riyadh. Saudi authorities did not confirm the attacks.

The Saudi-led coalition said on Thursday that it had intercepted drones over Riyadh and Medina, near Yanbu.

The renewed fighting between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis has ended a United Nations-brokered truce agreed in 2022, which had largely halted cross-border attacks, opening another front in the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Earlier this month, Houthi attacks caused extensive damage to Aramco’s headquarters, with fire spreading across several floors. Saudi Arabia has retaliated with strikes on missile launcher sites and said it has intercepted numerous ballistic missiles fired by the group.

Separately, a Houthi attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, near Dhahran, on Wednesday evening killed two people — a Saudi citizen and an Indian national — and wounded eight others.

Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation said on Thursday that airport operations had resumed and air traffic had returned to normal.

The escalation has rattled financial and energy markets. Saudi Arabia’s benchmark stock index fell 2.5% on Thursday following news of the Aramco evacuation, according to LSEG data.

Brent crude futures rose $3.06, or 2.81%, to $111.88 a barrel by 1104 GMT on Thursday, after reaching $112.55 earlier in the session, their highest level since May 18, amid concerns that the conflict could disrupt oil supplies from the Middle East.