NEW YORK: Oil prices jumped over $2 a barrel on Thursday after attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure escalated and shipping disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz threatened global supplies.
Brent futures were up $2.44, or 2.63 per cent, at $95.2 at 1:49pm ET (1849 GMT). US West Texas Intermediate crude was up $1.66, or 1.92pc, at $88.19.
Still, both benchmarks were on track to end the week about 3pc lower.
Yemen’s Houthis said on Thursday they had attacked a pumping station on Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline and an oil facility in Yanbu on its Red Sea coast, marking a sharp escalation in regional hostilities.
The group also claimed an attack on a building of Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil-producing company, in Riyadh, with no immediate Saudi confirmation.
In the Gulf, tankers are still ablaze, oil spills are washing ashore and drones and missiles have hit infrastructure across the region.
On Thursday, Iran’s military said four oil tankers were hit by explosions in the Strait of Hormuz after ignoring warnings. Reuters could not immediately verify the Iranian accounts.
Attacks on shipping in the Middle East have increased in recent weeks.
The Strait of Hormuz carried nearlyone-fifth of the world’s crude oil before the US-Israeli conflict with Iran.
Elsewhere, Ukraine said its drones hit the port area of Ust-Luga on the Baltic Sea in Russia’s northwest, triggering a fire and damaging part of its network of fuel tanks, in its latest attack on Russian energy infrastructure. Ust-Luga is a major oil, oil products and grain export outlet, along with other commodities.
‘The tit-for-tat exchanges between Russia and Ukraine and attacks on shipping by the IRGC are beginning to add additional price pressure,’ said Timothy Snyder, chief economist at Matador Economics. ‘It is beginning to look like investors are growing weary from hearing the same song on peace prospects.
Prices rebounded sharply from earlier losses on Thursday.
Oil had traded lower at the start of the session after US President Donald Trump posted on social media that Washington did not need a deal with Iran.
OPEC+ data showing crude production rose in October, driven by higher Saudi Arabian output despite shipping disruptions in the Middle East, also weighed on prices.
In the US, crude, gasoline and distillate inventories rose last week, the Energy Information Administration said on Thursday.-Reuters