By Yousef Saba and Maha El Dahan
DUBAI, March 16 (Reuters) – Oil loading operations have been suspended at the United Arab Emirates port of Fujairah, two sources told Reuters on Monday, after a drone attack sparked a fire in the emirate’s petroleum industrial zone.
Fujairah, located on the Gulf of Oman just outside the Strait of Hormuz, is typically a critical exit point for about 1 million barrels per day of the UAE’s Murban crude – a volume equivalent to roughly 1% of global demand.
Civil defense teams are currently working to control the blaze, the Fujairah government media office said in a statement, adding that no casualties have been reported. It made no comment on oil loadings.
Three separate fires were blazing at the Fujairah Oil Industrial Zone in the afternoon, said two sources, including one witness.
Abu Dhabi state oil firm ADNOC did not immediately respond to a request for comment
The suspension marks the second major disruption at the vital bunkering hub in recent days. Operations at Fujairah had resumed on Sunday following a separate drone strike over the weekend.
The attacks come as the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war with Iran strangles shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman that normally handles a fifth of the world’s oil supply.
(Reporting by Yousef Saba and Maha El Dahan, Additional reporting by Nayera Abdallah, Writing by Yousef Saba, Editing by Bernadette Baum and Jan Harvey)
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