By Mary Izuaka

 

The prices of crude oil rose to near two-week highs on Monday as attacks on Saudi Arabia overshadowed prospects of increased supply following comments by US President Donald Trump on Russian diesel exports and a possible Russia-Ukraine energy ceasefire.

Brent crude futures rose by $2.07, or 2 per cent, to $106.79 a barrel by 1321 GMT, their highest since 29 September, rebounding from earlier losses. US West Texas Intermediate crude was at $93.54 a barrel, up $1.69, or 1.8 per cent.

The rally came after fresh attacks on Saudi airports and oil facilities claimed by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group.

One person was killed and 11 others injured in a new attack on Riyadh’s international airport on Sunday, Saudi authorities said, a day after a strike that killed 13 people and wounded more than 300.

The Saudi-led coalition forces in Yemen said an unidentified projectile targeted Terminal 4 of the Riyadh airport on Sunday, causing a fire.

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the United States was considering joining Saudi strikes on the Houthis, in a conflict seen as a spillover from the wider war with Iran that the US and Israel launched in February.

In a televised speech on Sunday, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack and said the group also struck the airport in Dammam in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province and two facilities of Saudi oil giant Aramco.

Tanker attacks in the Strait of Hormuz have also fuelled concerns. According to Reuters, more attacks on tankers sailing through the strait were reported this month, threatening a recovery in Middle East crude exports seen in September.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations reported that a tanker was struck by a drone near Oman’s Sohar port, while another was damaged while transiting Hormuz.

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“The sense of some kind of normality of exports from the Strait of Hormuz was shattered last week. Fresh attacks by the Houthis on Saudi Arabia added to this and helped to lift prices,” Reuters quoted SEB commodities analyst Bjarne Schieldrop as saying.

“Hard choices over what to defend will increasingly have to be made: oil infrastructure, military installations, royal palaces, civilian airports or other.”

Goldman Sachs, in a note, raised its Brent price forecast for December to $90 a barrel from $85, estimating a risk premium of just over $20 a barrel.

“We forecast WTI prices, which are unusually low vs Brent because of high US-Europe shipping costs, to average $81 in December 2026 and $73 in 2027,” Reuters quoted the bank as saying.