- Satellite images show widespread destruction at Saudi Aramco oil facilities that were attacked Saturday.
- The strikes, thought to be carried out by drones, affected 5% of the world’s oil supply. They sent global markets into chaos, with oil prices spiking 20% early Monday.
- One image showed the location of attacks inside a processing plant in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia, while two more showed damage from strikes on the nearby Khurais oil field.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
New satellite images show the scale of destruction at vital Saudi oil facilities after a series of attacks on Saturday.
The images, provided by the US government to the Associated Press, show an estimated 17 impact sites at Saudi Aramco’s oil plant in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia, and two at the nearby Khurais oil field on Sunday.
The satellite image below shows the “stabilization area” of the Abqaiq facility. The area is where oil pumped out of the ground is treated to make it safe to move around the world in tankers.
Red boxes show five areas hit in the suspected drone attack, which the US believes involved 17 individual strikes.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies told the AP that the stabilization area was full of "storage tanks and processing and compressor trains - which greatly increases the likelihood of a strike successfully disrupting or destroying its operations."
This second image shows the Khurais oil field, which is 61 miles west of the Abqaiq facility.
The below image is a zoomed-in view of one of the two damaged buildings in the oil field. Scorch marks from the fire appear to be visible alongside the burned-out building.
Estimates suggest 5.7 million barrels of crude oil production a day have been affected, equating to more than 5% of the world's daily supply, the AP reported. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attacks.
Oil prices on Monday spiked to their highest levels in six months, according to Reuters. Business Insider's Yusuf Khan reported that Brent crude prices spiked 20% before settling to 8% above previous levels.