Sept 18 Oil prices fell about 1%, extending
losses for a third session, but stayed above $100 on Friday, as
hopes of alternate ways for barrels from West Asia to
reach markets outweighed concerns about strikes between Saudi
Arabia and Yemen’s Houthis.
Brent crude futures fell $1.01, or 1%, to $103.77 a
barrel by 0020 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate
futures fell $1.03, or 1%, to $100.88 a barrel. Both benchmarks
had closed down about 1% on Thursday.
Markets largely shrugged off concerns about new threats to
supplies even as Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis
exchanged fresh strikes across their border on Thursday,
expanding the West Asia war front.
Oil prices had climbed to around four-month highs this week
as sources said crude loadings at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea export
hub of Yanbu had been suspended and Riyadh had cancelled some
deliveries to Europe after its East-West pipeline was damaged in
an attack last week.
Sources that have spoken to Reuters have given varying
estimates of how long it will take to reopen the pipeline and
return crude flows to normal.
Three of the pipeline’s pumping stations — one more than
assessed previously — were damaged, according to satellite
imagery and three industry sources. A prolonged closure of the
pipeline to Yanbu could cut off as much as 4% of global oil
supply, traders have said.
Bloomberg reported that Saudi Arabia was seeking to return
about half the capacity of its East-West oil pipeline within
days after the critical link to the Red Sea was halted last week
following drone attacks.
Saudi Arabia was also offering more crude cargoes to Asian
refiners through ship-to-ship transfers off Oman’s Sohar port, a
move that would help offset some of the disruption caused by
attacks on the East-West pipeline.
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright has said that crude should
be flowing through the pipeline within days.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Navy said a Togo-flagged oil
tanker was struck while attempting to make an “illegal passage”
through the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, Iranian state media
said early on Friday.
Highlighting uncertainty, JPMorgan said on Thursday it does
not have a clear baseline view for oil markets for the first
time since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
The US and Iran have held no peace talks since an interim
agreement reached in June collapsed within weeks. The war will
come up for discussion at the United Nations General Assembly
next week, and an Iranian delegation will be able to attend,
according to the US State Department.