Saudi Pipeline Outage Sends Oil Prices Soaring Amid Middle East Tensions
Oil prices rose on Tuesday as concerns over supply disruptions persisted following attacks on Saudi Arabian energy infrastructure left the kingdom's East-West pipeline offline and cast doubt on efforts to ease shipping risks in the Gulf.
The Brent crude futures price climbed $1.37, or 1.3%, to $107.05 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate futures were up $1.53, or 1.51%, at $102.92 a barrel. Both benchmarks rose more than 1% in the previous session.
The Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen launched fresh attacks on Saudi Arabia on Monday, which followed attacks on Friday that disrupted the country's East-West pipeline and allowed oil exports to bypass the blockaded Strait of Hormuz.
According to Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade, 'oil traders are treating every fresh attack or infrastructure hit as incremental supply risk, while staying highly sensitive to any sign that the East-West pipeline or Hormuz flows could normalise.'