The attack on the Abqaiq facility could scarsely have chosen a more important target: the 7m b/d plant is Saudi Arabian Oil Company’s largest oil processing facility; it processed about half of Aramco’s crude oil production in 2018. It primarily takes in crude from the Ghawar, Shaybah and Khurais fields, stripping out hydrogen sulphide, other gases and water before the crude is piped west to Yanbu or east to Ras Tanura.