Photos Show How an Air Attack Crippled Saudi Arabia’s Oil Output

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. administration released images on Sunday that it said highlights the precision and sophistication of the attack on Saudi Arabia’s biggest oil-processing plant at Abqaiq.

One photo appears to show a row of four spherical tanks each with similar puncture marks, indicating a highly accurate strike. Those vessels are important because they are part of a process to remove hydrogen sulfide, a highly corrosive chemical that needs to be taken out of crude before it can be refined. Without that, most refineries would struggle to process Saudi crude.

This wider angle view shows damage to other parts of the Abqaiq complex, where there were 17 different points of impact, according to the U.S. government.

This close up of the attack on the Khurais oil field near Abqaiq shows damage to a processing plant and scorch marks on the ground from the subsequent fire, according to the U.S. assessment.

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