Saudi Arabia’s state oil giant Aramco issued a blanket evacuation order for its Dhahran headquarters on Thursday, instructing all remaining on-site employees to shift to remote work immediately. Two sources briefed on the decision told AFP that the directive came without a specific stated reason, though it followed hours of heightened tension after a drone strike on Dammam airport killed two people and injured eight others. This marks a sharp escalation from the previous week, when only non-essential personnel had been moved off-site after a Houthi attack damaged the building housing the company’s operations centre.
The security situation has deteriorated rapidly over the past month, with 22 people killed in attacks on Saudi airports this month alone, according to an AFP tally of official figures. Last Wednesday, the Iran-backed Houthi group claimed responsibility for targeting Aramco’s vast Dhahran complex, which includes numerous office buildings and residential compounds. Two Aramco employees told AFP at the time that a tower in the headquarters was struck, with one describing the damage starkly: “The top three floors were gone.” While AFP has not been granted access to verify the extent of the structural damage, the company’s decision to empty the site entirely suggests internal assessments view the threat as imminent and severe.
The Houthis, who declared a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia in September, have expanded their campaign from shipping lanes to domestic infrastructure, forcing the closure of Riyadh’s airport and the postponement of a major investment conference. On Thursday, Saudi authorities announced they had intercepted four drones in the airspace over Riyadh and Medina, underscoring the persistent aerial threat. The conflict, reignited by the collapse of a years-long truce in July, has seen Houthi forces seize significant territory along the Red Sea coast, prompting regular retaliatory airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition.
As Aramco shifts to a fully remote operational mode, the focus now turns to the durability of this security posture. The company has not announced a specific timeline for the return of staff to Dhahran, leaving thousands of employees in limbo. Meanwhile, the Saudi air force continues its campaign against Houthi-held areas, a dynamic that likely ensures the detention of normalcy in the kingdom’s eastern provinces for the foreseeable future.