Drone Strikes Seriously Disrupt Saudi Oil Field

Over the weekend, coordinated drones struck the world's biggest crude oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia. The crazy part: Just 10 drones were able to disrupt roughly half of the Saudis' oil output. The crazier part: That's 5% of daily global crude production.

The craziest part: Drones were once the exclusive tool of advanced militaries. Not anymore. Yemen's Houthis, an Iran-backed rebel group, claimed responsibility for the attacks (but the U.S. is more inclined to blame Iran). The Houthis have struck Saudi targets before, but the latest attack was the most economically disruptive to Riyadh's revenue engine.

Bear with me for some back-of-the-napkin math: The attack affected 5.7 million barrels, costing an estimated $456 million in lost revenue. Assuming each drone cost $20,000, that's a 2,280x, not accounting for the global spike in oil prices.

Big picture: An energy company like Aramco now has to worry about ruinous cyberattacks and drone strikes, which could get worse in the future with swarm attacks. This risk will likely hasten investment in the drone destruction business, which is already booming.

+ While we're here: Drones are becoming a tool of rebels of all types. Environmental activists were reportedly thinking about using them to disrupt flights at Heathrow airport over the weekend.