Saudi Arabia has lost approximately two billion dollars in oil production after the drone attack to Saudi oil fields earlier this month, according to a Financial Times report.
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The Arab country was economically hit as Riyadh's state oil company Saudi Aramco suffered a production cut equivalent to five percent of the world's oil supply. The kingdom said that its oil output had fallen by about 660,000 barrels per day (bpd), reporting the loss may be closer to 1.3 million bpd.
Saudi Arabia being the world's largest oil exporter currently works on an initial public offering (IPO) for Aramco, which would open the company to public investment for the first time in its history.
However, experts are now recalculating the real value of the company after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman said it could worth more than $2 trillion. According to the Wall Street Journal, Aramco is in the final stages of preparing the IPO and could do so by Friday.
The question that still lies in the air is if the kingdom can handle the production recovery process and furthermore, how can they prevent any other attacks in the future.
After the attack, the U.S. was quick to blame Iran, who dismissed the claim that Tehran was behind the attacks on Saudi oil facilities, and as warmongering rhetoric escalates fears of an all-out Iran-U.S. conflict reignite in the region.
"Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world's energy supply," U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted Sunday, adding that “there is no evidence the attacks came from Yemen.”
The accusation, in which no proof was presented, was rejected by Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Javad Zarif, who responded by saying Washington shifted from a failed campaign of “maximum pressure” to one of “maximum lying” and “deceit,” adding that Yemen’s situation won’t be solved by blaming Iran.
Iranian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi also criticized Saudi Arabia for fueling the flames of war in the region by committing various war crimes in Yemen and hailed the country for putting up resistance in the face of the aggression.