WEB DESK: Oil prices advanced on Thursday, with Brent crude futures rising above $110 per barrel as fresh attacks on Saudi Arabia heightened concerns over regional security and potential disruptions to energy supplies. The worsening situation also prompted Washington to order non-essential diplomatic staff and their families to leave the kingdom.
Brent crude futures rose $1.29, or 1.2%, to $110.11 per barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude gained 97 cents, or 1%, to $98.12.
In the previous session, Brent ended nearly flat at $108.82 a barrel, while WTI dropped 67 cents to settle at $97.15.
The latest price increase came amid renewed strikes targeting Saudi airports and energy facilities, fuelling fears that oil production and shipments across the Middle East could face further disruption.
The US State Department announced on Wednesday that non-emergency government personnel and their families had been ordered to depart Saudi Arabia due to mounting security threats posed by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Saudi aviation authorities reported that an attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam on Wednesday killed one person and left eight others injured.
Separately, two foreign workers were killed and two others wounded when debris from an intercepted drone hit a contractor’s vehicle near Saudi Aramco’s Shaybah oil field.
Shipping data analytics firm Kpler recorded at least 18 attacks on vessels in the region over the past two weeks, highlighting growing risks to maritime traffic.
Analysts at LSEG cautioned that threats to shipping were spreading beyond the Strait of Hormuz into the Gulf of Oman, raising the possibility of further interruptions to oil deliveries and ship-to-ship transfers.
Meanwhile, US crude inventories registered a sharper-than-expected decline. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said commercial crude stockpiles fell by 3.06 million barrels to 412.5 million barrels during the week ended October 16.
The reduction exceeded the 820,000-barrel drawdown forecast by analysts polled by Reuters.
However, US distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, increased by 1.68 million barrels to 104.3 million barrels, contrary to analysts’ expectations of a 1.16 million-barrel decline.
As fuel costs continued to rise, the Trump administration announced plans to release up to 315,000 barrels from the one-million-barrel Northeast Home Heating Oil reserve to help address pressure in the heating oil market.
The post Prices climb above $110 as attacks on Saudi Arabia intensify appeared first on Karachi News.