On Saturday the 15th 2019 a drone strike hit multiple oil plants in Saudi Arabia. Although the attacks were claimed by the Houthi Rebels of Yemen, the true culprit behind the attacks is not clear.  Multiple nations and groups including the Trump administration have claimed that Iran either backed or conducted the drone strikes.

The United States government has released multiple satellite photos of Saudi Arabian energy plants that show what was affected by the drone strikes. Although there were no deaths, the attacks caused oil prices to increase throughout the places that depend on Saudi Arbian oil.  The affected oil plants could produce a combined 8.45 million crude oil a day. While the extent of the damage is still not known, shutting down the oil plants will affect the world’s oil supply. Fortunately, officials who follow the Saudi oil supply have stated that would probably not be severe and the Saudis will most likely be able to recover from it.

The drone attacks have increased tensions in the Persian Gulf area causing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to state that he believed that Iran was guilty of conducting the drone strikes which he called “An unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply.” He also said that there is “no evidence that the attacks came from Yemen”.

Although the United States government has claimed that the strikes did not originate in Yemen, where the strikes were sent from remains unclear.  Some of the satellite photos show that the strikes were consistent with strikes coming from the north, the direction of Iran and Iraq, other photos later released show some of the oil plants with damage on the western side.