Crude Prices Climb as US Storm, Houthi Attacks Threaten Supply

By Adedapo Adesanya

Crude prices climbed on Wednesday morning as a storm headed for oil-producing ‌regions in the United States and attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis on Saudi Arabia against increased supplies of Middle East crude.

Brent futures rose $1.05 or 1.04 per cent to $101.63 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures gained 80 cents or 0.89 per cent to trade at $90.24 a barrel.

US forecasters said on Tuesday a storm forming in the Gulf of Mexico would become the first Atlantic hurricane of 2026 within two days and would likely hit oil and gas producing facilities.

The offshore areas in the Gulf in ⁠the storm’s path produce 15 per cent of US crude oil and 5 per cent of the country’s natural gas, so the storm could affect six refineries.

Data shows that refineries in US Gulf states account for about 50 per cent of the national capacity of 18.2 million barrels per day.

Saudi Arabia’s airports ⁠in Jazan and Najran were targeted in two attacks on Monday evening, the Saudi aviation authority said, as hostilities between the kingdom and Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis escalated. Jazan is the home of a 400,000-bpd Aramco refinery.

This comes at a time when the kingdom’s oil flows via the East-West pipeline had rebounded to 5.8 million barrels daily.

According to energy trading firm Vitol, some 12 million barrels of crude oil are getting out of the Persian Gulf daily, plus 2 million barrels of fuels.

This development has fueled concern about the security situation in the Middle East despite the improving flows of crude and even products.

Market analysts noted that attacks and refinery outages are likely to keep the cracks elevated, and scarcity will transmit to crude.

Amid these, US-Iran relations are no closer to repair, with US President Donald Trump saying on Tuesday that nobody knew who was running Iran during the eight-month US-Israeli war with Iran.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the US fell by 2.09 million barrels in the week ending October 2. Official data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) will be released later on Wednesday.