By Abdus-Sattar Ghazali

September 15, 2019 "Information Clearing House" - With $295 billion 2019 defense budget, Saudi Arabia Saturday failed to stop a drone attack on its oil installations from the Yemeni rebel rag tag militia.

Drones launched by Yemen's Houthi rebels attacked the world's largest oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia and another major oil field, sparking huge fires.

The facilities are operated by Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil giant, and produce up to 70% of the country's crude oil output.

The Wall Street Journal, quoting "people familiar with the matter," reported that Saudi Arabia is shutting down about half of its oil output following the strikes. The shutdown would amount to a loss of about 5 million barrels a day or roughly 5% of the world's daily production of crude oil, the Journal said.

The attack by the Houthis in the war against a US-backed and Saudi-led coalition comes after weeks of similar drone assaults on the kingdom's oil infrastructure, but none of the earlier strikes appeared to have caused the same amount of damage.

While the Houthis do not have significant financial resources, the drones have given them a way to hurt Saudi Arabia, which was the world's third highest spender on military equipment in 2018, investing an estimated $67.6 billion on arms, the New York Times said.