Oil amid attacks in Saudi Arabia remains near six-month highs
Kyiv • UNN
Brent fell to $115.15, while WTI fell to $101.16 per barrel. Houthi attacks and disruptions to shipping are fueling concerns about supplies.
Oil prices fell on Monday, October 26, after surging last week amid hopes of easing tensions between the United States and Iran, but attacks on key producer Saudi Arabia continued to keep investors on edge, while prices remained near six-month highs. UNN reports this, citing Reuters.
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Brent crude oil futures fell by $1.57, or 1.35%, to $115.15 at 12:39 GMT (14:39 Kyiv time). West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures fell by $2.11, or 2.04%, to $101.16 per barrel.
On Friday, prices rose by nearly $3. Brent ended the week up 6%, while WTI rose 2.3%.
"Given that the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia have doubled the danger, any fall in the price of Brent crude to last week's lows will find grateful buyers," said John Evans, an analyst at PVM Oil Associates.
"Corrective processes are notoriously difficult to quantify, but this process is still far from the point at which the bulls (investors who expect prices to rise — ed.) might lose hope," he added.
Saudi Arabia, which was due to hold talks with Iranian officials in Tehran together with Türkiye and Pakistan, said it was important to open channels for negotiations.
On Sunday, October 25, Qatari mediators arrived in Tehran as part of efforts to de-escalate regional tensions in coordination with the United States, an official briefed on the situation said.
Despite the mediation talks, attacks continued over the weekend: the Houthis said they had struck pumping stations on Saudi Arabia's "East-West" oil pipeline and Riyadh airport. On Sunday, Saudi Arabia reported intercepting more missiles and drones.
The consequences of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, which began on February 28, continue to be felt as companies adapt to disruptions in commercial shipping through the key Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb Strait caused by the conflict.
According to data collected by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank that has tracked maritime security incidents worldwide since 2017, October was the worst month in terms of the number of attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and adjacent waters.
Meanwhile, the energy ministers of Saudi Arabia and Singapore said that the state oil company Saudi Aramco would begin storing oil in Singapore in the second half of 2027 to increase the resilience of its regional supply chain.
International Energy Agency chief Fatih Birol again expressed concern about supplies, saying on Monday at an industry event in Singapore that he did not expect energy markets in 2027 to return to the state that existed before the war with Iran.