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Drone strikes oil industry zone near UAE's Fujairah port hours after attack in Dubai airport area; ops suspended
Oil-loading operations at the Fujairah port were suspended on March 14 as well after a drone-related incident had triggered a fire.
A drone strike hit an oil industry zone near UAE's Fujairah port on Monday, triggering a fire in the area just days after a similar attack took place in the Gulf nation's key important energy hubs.
There have been no casualties reported so far, said the Fujairah media office.
This port is country’s UAE's only export route that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz, say agencies.
Fujairah remains one of the UAE’s most critical energy hubs, primarily because it is located outside the Strait of Hormuz. The port serves as a major crude export terminal, handling around 1 million barrels per day of the UAE’s Murban crude oil which equivalent to nearly 1% of global oil demand.
Fujairah’s strategic importance rises if Strait of Hormuz is shut. The UAE has constructed the Habshan–Fujairah pipeline, which links Abu Dhabi’s oilfields directly to the port of Fujairah and has a capacity of roughly 1.5–2 million barrels per day. This allows the UAE to continue exporting oil to global markets through Fujairah even if the Strait of Hormuz is blocked.
Also Read: Amid Strait of Hormuz tensions, why UAE's Fujairah port is key to oil trade | Explained
The attacks on Fujairah come while the ongoing US-Israeli war with Iran has blocked te Strait of Hormuz, the waterway between Iran and Oman that normally handles a fifth of the world's oil supply. Tehran has said that they would not allow any US or Isreali ship to pass through Hormuz.
Gulf countries continue to brave strikes
The UAE and Saudi Arabia reported drone and missile attacks into Monday amid the escalating conflict as per Reuters .
Dubai temporarily halted flights at its main airport after a fire broke out at a fuel tank, which authorities said was caused by an Iranian drone. Operations resumed gradually a few hours later, though Emirates announced that several scheduled flights for the day would be cancelled.
In Abu Dhabi, authorities said a Palestinian civilian was killed after a missile fell on a car in the capital.
Meanwhile, Israel launched airstrikes on infrastructure in Iran’s capital, Tehran, following a barrage of missiles fired toward the Jewish state.
