Brent Jumps 4% as Houthi Attacks Stoke Middle East Supply Fears

By Adedapo Adesanya

The price of Brent crude, the international benchmark, climbed by 4.0 per cent or $4.35 to $113.17 per barrel on Thursday after Houthi attacks in Saudi Arabia stoked concerns of further disruption to energy supplies from the key exporting region.

Also, US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose by $2.32 or 2.4 per cent to $99.47 a barrel after the Houthis escalated attacks against Saudi Arabian infrastructure, and it may only be a matter of time until a major oil site is struck.

The group said it is responding to the offensive of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, which is seeking to reclaim territory in the southwest on the Red Sea and the critical Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Also, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy on Thursday claimed that seven vessels, including oil tankers, were either hit by Iranian forces or struck mines in the Persian Gulf over the past day, as tensions in the region flared up again this week.

The IRGC Navy said that its forces had tracked and hit four tankers carrying out oil transfers in the northern Persian Gulf, while three other vessels hit mines west of the Strait of Hormuz.

The IRGC Navy also warned the United States that continued provocations could lead to a wider response against regional U.S. bases.

The Iranian warning comes as the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen expand their strikes on targets in Saudi Arabia with hits on infrastructure, including a strike near the Shaybah oilfield.

On Wednesday, two people were killed and two others injured by debris from intercepted drones near a processing plant at the Shaybah field, one of the biggest oilfields in Saudi Arabia.

The escalation of the attacks from the Houthis on Saudi Arabia has prompted the US to order non-essential government personnel and diplomats and their families to leave the Kingdom.

In other places, Russia pounded Kyiv with ballistic missiles, and Ukraine sent hundreds of drones towards Moscow overnight as the two sides kept up a barrage despite the latest US push to end the war.

Russia said on Wednesday it was ready to resume US-mediated talks with Ukraine next month, after President Vladimir Putin hosted US envoy Steve Witkoff for talks in St Petersburg.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he hoped negotiations, which would ​be the first since February, would take ​place early in November.

In Libya, ​an oil pipeline valve from the Hamada and Tahara oilfields to Zawiya port has ​been shut, leading to a reduction in production at both fields.