A long, empty concourse at King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, photographed from floor level: a polished green and white granite floor reflects ceiling lights, potted plants, rows of seats alon · moaksey, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0

Study · YANBU · 2026-10-12 · 8 min read · Oil, shipping and airlines · Futures

Riyadh's airport is hit again, then Dammam's; a drone hits a tanker

What changed since chapter seven: a projectile struck Terminal 4 of Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport on Sunday 11 October, and Saudi Arabia's civil aviation authority said a Pakistani resident was killed and 11 people wounded; late on Sunday the authority confirmed a strike on Dammam's King Fahd International Airport; the Houthis' spokesman claimed Saturday's attack and two Saudi Aramco facilities; UKMTO said a drone struck a tanker near Oman's Sohar anchorage; and the IMO's confirmed list moved from 100 to 104.

By the desk. Researched and written by an AI model from the sources listed at the end; nothing here restates another publication's text.

DALadjacent FROadjacent

What changed since chapter seven

Chapter seven closed on Sunday 11 October with Saturday's missile strike on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, which Saudi Arabia's civil aviation authority said killed at least 12 people and wounded 309, with President Trump saying the United States 'may' join Saudi strikes on the Houthis, and with the International Maritime Organization's list of confirmed ship incidents at 100. The step since then: on Sunday an unidentified projectile struck the same airport again. The Saudi-led coalition said it hit Terminal 4 and caused a fire, and the General Authority of Civil Aviation confirmed the death of a Pakistani resident and injuries to 11 others, NBC News and Reuters reported. The coalition also said it intercepted a cruise missile near the airport, a drone in the Eastern Province and a ballistic missile launched towards Khamis Mushait, Reuters reported. ^{[6, 7]}

The strikes reached a second airport. Late on Sunday the civil aviation authority confirmed the strike on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, adding that 'damage assessments and safety inspections of airport facilities are under way', Reuters reported; an eyewitness aboard a taxiing aircraft told Reuters that around 8:30 p.m. a projectile struck the tarmac beside several parked aircraft and caused a fire. CBS News reported that it was unclear whether anyone was hurt and that Dammam's airport lies about 400 miles from Riyadh's. Dammam is the kingdom's third-largest airport, Reuters reported. ^{[7, 8]}

The claim moved too. In a televised speech on Sunday, the Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree claimed responsibility for Saturday's attack and said the group had also struck the airport in Dammam and two facilities of Saudi Aramco, the state oil company; the Saudi government's media office and Aramco did not respond to requests for comment, Reuters reported. CBS News reported that Saree said the group had carried out at least four operations against the Riyadh airport since Saturday, in answer to what he called 'brutal Saudi aggression', and that he claimed Saudi Arabia had launched more than 120 airstrikes on Houthi-held Yemen in 24 hours. The claim about Aramco is the group's own; no record read for this chapter confirms damage at an Aramco site. ^{[7, 8]}

At sea, a new tanker was hit outside the strait. The UK Maritime Trade Operations centre, UKMTO, said on Monday 12 October that it had reclassified an incident in the vicinity of the Sohar anchorage in Oman as an attack, after confirmation that the tanker was struck by a drone; local authorities were assisting in the evacuation of the crew, and damage and environmental impact were unknown at the time of the update, Reuters reported through Arab News and The Jerusalem Post. Roya News reported the notice as UKMTO Warning Notice 165-26, update 001, and said the strike occurred on Sunday. UKMTO did not say who launched the drone in any report read here. ^{[10, 11, 12]}

The record

The confirmed list. The IMO's page of confirmed incidents in the Strait of Hormuz and the Middle East now reads 'Number of confirmed incidents as at 12 October 2026: 104', against 100 as at 9 October in chapter seven, with confirmed seafarer deaths unchanged at 24. Its newest row is dated 10 October: the VALTHERA, 'Strait of Hormuz - Oman TTW', damaged, no pollution. The page does not yet carry the Sohar tanker of Sunday 11 October. ^[1]

The flows, before Sunday. Kpler's briefing prepared on Monday 12 October, with flow data to Saturday 10 October, put the seven-day average of confirmed oil transits through the strait at 10,538 thousand barrels a day against a pre-war baseline of 17,132 thousand, and tanker crossings at an average of 12 a day against 50 before the war; Kpler wrote that its latest days are preliminary and have typically settled 1.5 to 2 times higher as confirmations land. Red Sea volumes, the bypass this series follows, averaged 3,741 thousand barrels a day over seven days against a baseline of 2,803 thousand, down from the 3,904 thousand of Kpler's briefing of Friday 9 October, read in chapter seven. Kpler Insight reported on 6 October that East-West Pipeline flows had recovered to 5.8 million barrels a day and that, with the threat of further attacks clouding the outlook, Kpler expects Saudi crude supply to average around 9 million barrels a day in October. ^{[2, 16]}

The cost of carrying it. Kpler Insight reported on 9 October that 10 tankers were struck in the strait between 28 September and 4 October, the highest weekly count this year, and that rates for a very large crude carrier from the Middle East to China reached a record 38.47 dollars a barrel; Kpler wrote that it expects rates for dirty tankers, the ships that carry crude and heavy fuel, to stay elevated through the fourth quarter. Trading Economics, in a note carried by TradingView News, reported that Brent crude rose toward 105 dollars a barrel on Monday 12 October, a third consecutive session of gains, after the attacks on Riyadh's airport; France 24 reported that oil rose after two tankers were attacked over the weekend. ^{[2, 14, 13]}

The governments. Saudi Arabia's energy minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, said the events of recent weeks were serious and the kingdom's response must be 'equally serious', Reuters reported. Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey, a group the Pakistani foreign ministry called the R4, said in a joint statement issued late on Sunday that the group 'holds the Houthi militia fully accountable for the results of these attacks' and 'demands the immediate and unconditional halt of these attacks', Arab News reported, and CBS News reported the four called the attacks 'a blatant violation of international law'. In Tehran, Mohsen Rezaei, head of the Supreme National Security Council, said Iran considers the latest US response in stalled talks to end the war 'insufficient', the Associated Press reported through CBS News. ^{[7, 9, 8]}

Who it reaches

The airlines, through Riyadh and the kingdom's skies. US aviation authorities issued a notice to US airlines to use caution while flying to or over the kingdom, Reuters reported. Delta Air Lines' first Atlanta to Riyadh flight is set for 23 October, and its chief executive, Ed Bastian, told reporters on an investor call that the service might not go ahead, saying 'Safety is going to make the call', meaning the airline's own safety and security department, Paddle Your Own Kanoo reported on 9 October. Delta's quarterly report filed that day shows aircraft fuel and related taxes of 4,351 million dollars for July to September against 2,570 million a year earlier, an increase the company attributed primarily to a 63 percent increase in its average jet fuel purchase price. The path is adjacent: no record read here says Delta has changed the date. ^{[7, 15, 4]}

The tanker owners, through the Gulf of Oman and the Red Sea. Frontline's report for April to June says 'a significant number of vessels have remained committed to Arabian Gulf trades, whether idle within the Gulf, engaged in shuttle employment across the strait, or loading at Fujairah and along the Omani coast', and that renewed attacks in the Red Sea 'have put pressure on the alternative route that handled much of the displaced Saudi Arabian volume'. Sunday's drone struck a tanker at an Omani anchorage, on the coast that report names. The path is adjacent: no record read here names a Frontline ship in the weekend's events. ^{[5, 10]}

Where the sources disagree

On Saturday's toll. The civil aviation authority's count, as CBS News carried it, is at least 12 dead and 309 wounded; France 24 and Trading Economics also give 12. Reuters and NBC News now report 13 killed, and Arab News reported 13 as well; NBC News reported that the Indian Embassy said an Indian national injured in Saturday's attack had died, which may account for the difference, though no source read here says so. Counting Sunday's death, Reuters reported the week's toll in attacks on the Riyadh airport at 18, and the energy minister's remarks were reported alongside a count of more than 15 people killed in two weeks. ^{[8, 13, 14, 7, 6, 9]}

On who claimed what. Reuters reported that Saree claimed Saturday's attack in a televised speech on Sunday, and CBS News reported that the Houthis claimed the strikes; NBC News, updated late on Sunday, reported that the group did not immediately claim the latest attack, while renewing its warning to stay away from Saudi airports. The Aramco claim stands on the Houthis' word alone. ^{[7, 8, 6]}

On the Sohar tanker's crew. Arab News's summary of UKMTO's update says the strike left all crew safe; the text of the same Reuters report says only that local authorities were assisting in the evacuation of the crew. India's minister of ports, shipping and waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal, said a tanker carrying 11 Indian nationals was struck by a drone in the Sohar region, that nine were rescued and that 'two Indian nationals currently remain missing', The Jerusalem Post and Reuters reported. No report read here names the ship with a source that can be checked. ^{[10, 11]}

What settles it next

The dated records still to come. The civil aviation authority's damage assessments at Riyadh and Dammam, and its word on when King Khalid International reopens. The US Energy Information Administration's weekly petroleum report for the week ending Friday 9 October, moved by the Columbus Day holiday to Thursday 15 October at 12:00 p.m. Eastern time. Delta's first Riyadh flight, set for 23 October, on which its safety department will decide. And the records with no date: the IMO's next update, which will show whether the Sohar tanker enters the confirmed list; the outcome of the search for the two missing Indian seafarers; the President's decision on joining Saudi strikes, which he said on Saturday he would make 'very quickly' in CBS News's report; and Kpler's next briefing, the first whose flow data will cover Sunday's strikes. The next chapter opens with what those documents changed. ^{[3, 4, 15, 1, 11, 8, 2]}

Sources

Every stock is a company; the desk grades the company behind the stock. This article describes; it does not recommend. Adjacent means the company is not named in the event and the path by which it is reached is stated above.

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