Rebel bombing hits the world's largest oil refinery takes half of Saudi production and generates instability in Brazil

An attack, around 4:22 am on Saturday (6:XNUMX pm on Friday, Brasília time), on Saudi Arabia's largest refinery, in addition to causing a huge fire, took out of circulation half of the country's oil production and almost XNUMX% of world production.
It is estimated that 5,7 million barrels/day will not be produced by Saudi Aramco, a Saudi state company, which operated in Hijra Khurais, one of the largest oil fields in Saudi Arabia, and in Abqaiq, where the largest oil refinery in the world is located.

The attack, attributed to the Houthi rebel group based in Yemen and backed by Iran, was said to be the biggest ever carried out on Saudi oil infrastructure.
Other attacks had already temporarily affected the operation of gas pipelines, ships and refining facilities, but without the magnitude of this attack on a refinery, which is likely to worsen relations between the US / Saudi Arabia and Iran.

The rebels claimed to have used 10 drones in the attack and promised further attacks, "We promise the Saudi regime that our future operations will expand and be more painful as long as the aggression and siege continues," said a spokesman for the rebels.

Its consequences

So far, the global consequences of the attack are not yet clear, but the Saudis will have to use their entire oil stock of about 188 million barrels stored to guarantee that the world supply is not affected, acting in this way so that the price does not go out of range. control.

In Brazil, two impacts may happen, one of them positively, by making the pre-salt area appreciate in value, as it is a huge reserve that is outside the conflict zone and will take place on the eve of the mega auction of the transfer of rights, scheduled for the day November 06th, a fact that would attract more foreign investors than expected.
The other impact would be negative, because if there is a very strong increase in the price of a barrel, Petrobras will be forced to pass on the increase to the distributors, affecting the price at the pumps.

Any political interference in prices, such as what has happened recently in the government, would also cause problems for Petrobras' divestment program.

This instability would generate problems with companies interested in acquiring the refineries that Petrobras is putting up the sale, as it would affect the valuation of assets at auction.