West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose to $99.39 a barrel early Thursday as traders weighed possible supply disruptions after a drone incident near Saudi Arabia’s Shaybah field killed two people.
At 2:26 a.m. ET (06:26 UTC), WTI was up $2.24, or 2.31%. Brent futures gained $2.82, or 2.59%, to $111.64 a barrel, Reuters reported. The news service linked the advances to concern that regional fighting could widen and interrupt oil supplies.
FXStreet put WTI near $97.70 at 9:03 p.m. ET Wednesday (01:03 UTC Thursday) and said the rise ended a three-session losing streak. The prices are separate intraday snapshots, as in EconoTimes’ earlier comparison of WTI readings.
Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Energy said air defenses intercepted a drone targeting Shaybah’s processing facility on Oct. 21. Debris ignited a contractor’s vehicle beyond the facility perimeter, the ministry said. A Filipino resident and a Nepali resident died, while a Pakistani resident and an Indian resident were injured. The ministry said Shaybah’s operations were unaffected.
Saudi Aramco lists the field’s crude production capacity at one million barrels per day. Separately, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said commercial crude inventories fell by 3.060 million barrels to 412.517 million barrels in the week ended Oct. 16. Distillate stocks rose to 104.286 million barrels.
The Associated Press (AP) reported that Ukrainian strikes ignited fires at an oil-export terminal and an oil depot in St. Petersburg on Sunday, Oct. 18, amid continued Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. AP did not connect the fires directly to Thursday’s WTI move. The EIA’s next weekly report is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 28.
