Houthis claim ballistic missile strike on Ras Tanura refinery

Yemen's Houthis said on October 27, 2026 that they struck the Ras Tanura refinery in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, Saudi Aramco's largest oil export complex, with a ballistic missile, as December Brent traded around 115 dollars a barrel. The group's military spokesman, Yahya Saree, wrote on X that the Yemeni armed forces "managed to target the Ras Tanura refinery" and that the attack caused "massive fires," AFP reported.

Saudi authorities did not confirm an explosion at the refinery or its extent, according to EFE. The Riyadh-led coalition said it intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles launched at Riyadh and ruled out casualties or material damage so far. An OilPrice report citing Bloomberg maintains that a fire broke out near the Ras Tanura export center in the early hours and was quickly contained, without specifying damage. For Mexico, the episode matters because the benchmark crude sets the export value of Pemex: the Mexican Mix closed on October 26 at 104.68 dollars a barrel, according to El Economista.

The escalation comes in a month of repeated attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure. Among the incidents listed by OilPrice are two missile strikes at Riyadh airport that left 14 dead, an attack on Aramco's administrative building in Dhahran, and debris from intercepted drones near the Shaybah field that caused two deaths. The Houthis also said they attacked pumping stations on Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline, which Saudi Arabia did not confirm, and that pipeline had already run halted for two weeks in September due to damage to its stations, with crude loading suspended at the port of Yanbu on the Red Sea.

The market swings between that risk and negotiation. December Brent fell 0.8% on October 26 to 115.81 dollars and WTI dropped 1.46% to 101.76 dollars, while officials from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan traveled to Tehran to discuss the conflict, Rigzone reported. The next market marker is Pemex's daily Mexican Mix quote and Brent's reaction to any Saudi confirmation on Ras Tanura.

This article was written with the assistance of artificial intelligence from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.