Oil prices jump after Yemen’s Houthis claim attacks on Saudi facilities

Oil prices have jumped following renewed attacks on Saudi Arabia by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, including claimed strikes on facilities belonging to state-run energy giant Aramco.

Brent crude, the key yardstick of global prices, rose more than 3 percent on Thursday as the attacks stoked fears of additional disruption to energy supplies already facing constraints due to the US-Israel war on Iran.

Brent futures for November ended the day above $106.50 a barrel on Thursday, after earlier exceeding $108.

Prices eased slightly on Friday morning in Asia, with the benchmark standing at $105.77 a barrel as of 02:00 GMT.

The Houthis on Thursday said they had launched missile and drone attacks on a “sensitive target” in Riyadh and Aramco facilities in the Red Sea city of Yanbu.

The rebel group said both operations “achieved their objectives successfully” in a statement carried by the Houthi-run Yemen News Agency.

Saudi-led coalition forces said earlier that they intercepted six ballistic missiles fired by the Houthis towards the kingdom.

Saudi authorities have not confirmed whether the attacks caused any damage or casualties.

Aramco, which supplies roughly 10 percent of global oil demand, did not respond to inquiries outside of regular business hours.

The latest flare-up in violence in the Middle East comes as the US and Iran are engaged in renewed diplomatic efforts to find a resolution to their seven-month conflict on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday that he hoped Washington would return to their Memorandum of Understanding on ending the war, which lapsed in mid-August without a peace deal, before the US midterm elections in November.

“Relative to the post-war trend, these levels remain elevated and reflect the reality that critical supply routes and facilities are still vulnerable,” Tim Waterer, chief market ‌analyst at KCM Trade in Sydney, Australia, told Al Jazeera.

“Diplomatic efforts on the sidelines of the UN are providing some counterweight, but until there is clearer evidence of a durable de-escalation, the upside bias remains in place,” Waterer said.

June Goh, a senior oil market analyst at Sparta Commodities in Singapore, said oil would likely stay above $100 a barrel as long as the war on Iran continued.

“With no clear resolution in sight, the gap in oil inventories globally is getting wider,” Goh told Al Jazeera.