The last employees still badging into Saudi Aramco’s head office have been sent home. According to people familiar with the decision, quoted by both Reuters and AFP, the state oil giant on Thursday ordered a complete evacuation of its headquarters in Dhahran, in the kingdom’s Eastern Province. The skeleton crew that had stayed behind now has to log in from home, with no end date set. Aramco did not comment straight away.
In practice the building had already been half deserted. A Houthi strike earlier this month set several floors ablaze, and most staff have worked from home ever since, leaving only a core team on site. Reuters noted that this appears to be the first time the compound has been cleared since the Iran war broke out. No official reason was given.
The neighbourhood offers clues. Late on Wednesday, a strike on the main airport serving neighbouring Dammam left two dead, a Saudi national and a man from India. A day later the Houthis’ military spokesman, Yahya Saree, claimed on television that the movement had hit Aramco installations at Yanbu on the Red Sea coast as well as the defence ministry in Riyadh. Saudi officials did not confirm either claim, although the Saudi-led coalition said it had shot down drones over Riyadh and Medina.
Investors did not wait for clarity. The Tadawul’s main TASI index slid about 2.5 per cent, while Brent crude briefly topped $112 a barrel, its highest price since the middle of May.
The episode underlines how thoroughly the UN-brokered truce of 2022 has collapsed. Since mid-July, when the Houthis declared a naval blockade of the kingdom, Riyadh has hit back with air raids on launch sites inside Yemen, and the Saudi–Houthi clash has become yet another front in the wider confrontation with Tehran.
