Saudi Refining..Recovered? I Call BS!

The announcement came today from Saudi Arabia that they had already recovered their oil refining capacity from the attack a few days ago and would be at full capacity in 2–3 weeks.

Now, there are a number of possibilities here. First, as mentioned in my first article on the subject, they had been running at reduced capacity for some time. So maybe that refinery or another not running at capacity simply increased output.

However, to be back at full capacity in 2–3 weeks would be beyond possibility. That attack reduced refining by 50% with fires so extensive that the smoke was seen in space. So, what? Did they just have enough equipment sitting around unused, enough to basically build half of a refinery? That doesn’t sound likely. Ordering new equipment, shipping from other countries, transporting massive pieces of equipment and installing it doesn’t happen in that time frame.

Then there is another possibility. That the whole thing was a ruse meant to portray Iran badly.

Or there is the possibility that they are lying and have not recovered capacity. They may do that to make it seem to their adversaries that the attack was ineffective, so as to discourage future attacks.

I am guessing the truth is a combination of the latter and having unused refinery capacity which they restarted. This would also discourage trading partners from seeking out other sources for oil products, which they had to already be doing.