Drone Strike Forces Shutdown of One of World's Largest Refineries in UAE

A drone strike on Abu Dhabi's sprawling Ruwais industrial complex sparked a fire and forced state oil giant ADNOC to shut its refinery operations there on Tuesday, dealing a significant blow to one of the world's largest single-site refining facilities amid an escalating campaign targeting Gulf energy infrastructure.

The Abu Dhabi government media office confirmed that authorities were responding to a fire at a facility inside the Ruwais Industrial City following a drone attack, and said there were no injuries. ADNOC, the Abu Dhabi Media Office and the UAE foreign ministry did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.

A source familiar with the situation told Reuters the refinery had been "shut down as a precautionary measure," adding that all other operations at the complex were continuing normally. A separate source, speaking anonymously to AFP, confirmed that "the Ruwais refinery has halted operations out of precaution," but said they could not confirm whether the refinery itself had been directly hit.

ADNOC describes its Ruwais facility as "the world's fourth-largest single-site refinery." Multiple reports cite the complex's combined refining capacity at up to 922,000 barrels per day. Argus Media, citing unit-level data, lists the Ruwais West refinery at 417,000 barrels per day and the Ruwais East refinery at 400,000 barrels per day. ADNOC did not immediately disclose which specific unit was struck. A source close to refinery operations told Argus that the west refinery had been shut as a precaution, though that could not be directly confirmed.

Beyond refining, the complex houses Fertiglobe's Fertil granular urea plant, which has a production capacity of 2 million tonnes per year. There was no immediate indication of any impact to urea production, and Fertiglobe had not issued a production status update at the time of reporting.

The attack is the latest in a series of strikes on Gulf energy infrastructure since a US-Iran conflict erupted on February 28. The regional toll on refining capacity has been severe. An Iranian missile struck Bapco Energies' 405,000-barrel-per-day Sitra refinery in Bahrain on March 5. In Kuwait, debris injured workers at the 346,000-barrel-per-day Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery. Saudi Aramco closed its 550,000-barrel-per-day Ras Tanura refinery on March 2 after debris from intercepted drones fell on the plant; the facility was targeted again on March 4. Unnamed sources cited by Argus Media said Aramco also shuttered four offshore fields, including Safaniya, Marjan, Zuluf and Abu Safa, reducing output by an estimated 2 to 2.5 million barrels per day.

The cumulative impact on global supply chains is drawing urgent warnings. An industry source identified only as Nasser told Argus: "The disruption has caused a severe chain reaction, not only in shipping and insurance, but there is also a drastic domino effect on aviation, agriculture, the automotive and other industries. The longer this disruption goes on, the more drastic the consequences for the global economy."

With no timeline offered for restarting Ruwais refinery operations and no official damage assessment released, the pressure on regional energy markets will intensify the longer the facility remains offline.