WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Experts are considering whether attackers at Saudi oil facilities could use cruise missiles fired from Iraq or Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, without ruling out the drones hypothesis.
The paper described the attack on Saudi oil facilities as another setback for US attempts to open direct talks with the Houthis.
The daily revealed that Houthi leaders rejected US efforts to start talks earlier this month after dozens were killed in coalition raids on a detention center in Yemen.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said there was no evidence that the attacks on Saudi Arabia were launched from Yemen, adding that Tehran was behind nearly 100 attacks on Saudi Arabia and that the United States would work with its allies to hold it accountable for its aggression.
Saudi Arabia halted nearly half of its oil production after the attacks, the report said, adding that Aramco expects most oil production to resume within days.
This came after three informed sources told Reuters that Saudi oil production and exports from the Kingdom were disrupted after drone attacks on two Aramco facilities, one of the largest oil refinery in the world.
One source said the attacks would affect the production of five million barrels of oil per day, about half the current production of the Kingdom.
Prince Abdul Aziz bin Salman al-Saud, Saudi Arabia's energy minister, said the attacks on the Abqaiq and Khurais plants had resulted in a temporary halt in production.
The decline will be compensated for customers from Saudi oil stocks, the minister was quoted by the official SPA news agency as saying on Twitter.
Abqaiq, 150 km east of Riyadh, is home to the world's largest oil refinery, and Khurais, 190 km southwest of Dhahran, is the world's second-largest oilfield.