RIYADH/DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said on Wednesday an attack by Yemen’s Houthi group on a Saudi oil tanker would have no impact on oil supplies.
The Western-backed, Saudi-led coalition has said the Iran-aligned Houthis attacked the tanker off Yemen’s main port city of Hodeidah on Tuesday.
“The terrorist attack ... will not affect economic activity or stall oil supplies,” Falih said on his official Twitter account.
Saudi oil industry sources said that oil operations and shipments were proceeding as normal and that oil security around oil facilities inside the kingdom had not been raised further.
“It was a minor attack. There was no impact, but the question is will it continue?” one source said.
The tanker was the vessel Abqaiq, the EU naval force said on Wednesday.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates intervened in a civil war in Yemen in 2015 against the Houthis to restore the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
The Houthis, who control most of northern Yemen, have launched a flurry of missiles at Saudi Arabia, including the capital Riyadh, in the past few days. Saudi authorities said they had intercepted the missiles but debris killed one person.
The alliance, which includes other Sunni Muslim states, has conducted thousands of air strikes targeting Houthis but has often hit civilian areas, although it denies ever doing so intentionally.
One air strike killed 12 civilians including seven children in Hodeidah on Monday.
Reporting by Stephen Kalin and Rania El Gamal, writing by Maha El Dahan; editing by Jason Neely and Hugh Lawson