Saudi oil giant Aramco announced Thursday it was evacuating its main headquarters in Dhahran and ordered employees to shift to emergency work-from-home protocols. The move follows a wave of Houthi attacks on energy facilities and strategic infrastructure across the kingdom. It’s the first time since the regional escalation began that the company has been forced to empty its central management and operations hub.
حـرائق غير مـسبوقة 🔻
حرائق ضخمة في مصفاة #جدة السعودية التابعة لشركة #أرامكو نتيجة الإصابات المباشرة للصواريخ اليمنية. https://t.co/EdOvjCQgr7
— آنِصّآر آلَلَهّ (@AnsarAllah1111) October 22, 2026
The evacuation came after emergency alarms went off at the office complex, just days after the site took a direct hit that caused heavy damage and sparked a fire that spread across multiple floors. Four people were killed in the past 24 hours from Houthi attacks that hit the Shaybah oil field and Dammam airport. The Dhahran headquarters is considered the nerve center of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry—it houses the National Operations Coordination Center, which monitors in real time thousands of kilometers of pipelines, refineries, export terminals, and onshore and offshore oil rigs across the country.
The current escalation puts Saudi Arabia’s oil industry and global energy markets on high alert. While Saudi authorities and Aramco executives are avoiding detailed official statements and trying to project business as usual, the decision to evacuate the company’s headquarters underscores the scale of the security threat the kingdom is facing.