A fire broke out at a Saudi Aramco plant after an Iranian attack. Work has been suspended

Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia's largest oil company, said that one of its refineries was hit, resulting in a small fire at the facility that was contained, CNBC writes.

Bloomberg sources said Saudi Aramco suspended operations at its Ras Tanur refinery on the Persian Gulf coast as a precautionary measure to assess the damage.

Saudi authorities said there was a "limited" fire in Ras Tanur caused by debris after the interception of two drones, the state-run Saudi Press Agency said. The incident did not result in civilian casualties.

Aramco has yet to comment on the current status of the refinery, which has a capacity of more than 500,000 bpd, Bloomberg notes.

A fire also broke out at one of Amazon Web Services' (AWS) data centers in the UAE after some "objects" hit its premises, the company itself said. According to AWS, the incident occurred around 16:30 Dubai time (13:30 CET) on Sunday, March 1, and affected services hosted in one of its regional zones. The power supply to the site was cut while the fire was being extinguished. In a separate notice, the company said it was investigating connectivity and power supply issues in Bahrain.

That said, it is still unclear whether the incident in the UAE at the AWS facility is related to the conflict between the U.S., Israel and Iran, Bloomberg notes, stressing however that the fire at one of the company's data centers occurred on the same day that Iran struck the UAE in response to a U.S.-Israeli operation that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior Iranian officials, Bloomberg notes."One of our availability areas was impacted when objects hit the data center, causing sparks and a fire," the company said. In an update dated 10:46 a.m. Dubai time on Monday, March 2, it said another data center area was affected due to a "localized power issue."

An AWS spokesperson declined to comment to Bloomberg.

Saudi Aramco shares added 3% on March 1 in Riyadh, where the trading week runs from Sunday through Thursday. At the same time, the Saudi Arabia All Share index fell 2%, MarketWatch reports.

UAE authorities announced the closure of Abu Dhabi and Dubai stock exchanges on March 2 and 3 to avoid market panic amid Iranian missile and drone attacks in response to U.S. and Israeli strikes, Bloomberg writes. The regulator said it would continue to monitor the situation and take additional measures if necessary.

Fears of further escalation of the conflict have pushed oil prices up as investors lay down the risks of supply disruptions, CNBC notes. Brent crude oil prices soared on Monday morning by 13% - to a high since January 2025 - and surpassed the $82 per barrel mark. The jump in prices was the strongest in the last four years, states Bloomberg. Subsequently, the growth of prices of the benchmark grade slowed down a bit, consolidating around $78 per barrel - but even this level was almost 8% above the closing price of Brent on Friday, February 27.

Gold also rose by 2.2% in trading on March 2, reaching above $5390 per troy ounce. Then the growth was reduced to 1%. Asian markets and U.S. stock futures showed widespread declines.

The escalation of the US-Israel conflict with Iran in the Middle East continues into its third day.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor