DUBAI — The United Arab Emirates’ biggest port and oil storage facility, Fujairah, halted loading operations following a drone strike, the latest in a series of hits threatening the country’s only export route outside the Strait of Hormuz.A fire also raged after a drone attack on the strategically important port and industrial zone at Fujairah, one of the largest oil storage facilities in the region.Abu Dhabi state oil giant ADNOC had suspended operations at Fujairah after a drone attack triggered fires at the key export terminal on Saturday.Some other loading at the hub has resumed, however, with one source saying two of the port’s three single point moorings, at which ships dock, are operational.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.Three separate fires were ongoing in Fujairah’s oil industrial zone in the afternoon, two sources said.Civil defense teams were working to control the blaze, the Fujairah government media office said in a statement, adding that no casualties were reported.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 halt after a drone strike over the weekend.The attacks come as the US-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.The UAE’s daily oil output has fallen by more than half as the Iran conflict and the strait’s effective closure forced ADNOC to implement widespread production shut-ins, Reuters reported on Monday.Flights were temporarily suspended on Monday after a fire broke out near Dubai’s international airport after a “drone-related incident”.And a rocket attack on a car killed a Palestinian national on the outskirts of the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi, the city’s Media Office reported.The attack occurred in the Al Bahia area, it said.UAE air defense systems intercepted six ballistic missiles and 21 drones on Monday, the Defence Ministry said.Iran has launched over 1,900 missiles and drones at the UAE since the war between the US and Israel, and Iran, began.Monday’s drone strike was the third incident since the start of the war near Dubai’s airport, which is the world’s busiest for international passengers.Some flights were delayed, while others were cancelled altogether, in another hit to the UAE’s image of safety and stability.
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