Oil price jumps 10% after Saudi Aramco refinery and Qatar LNG plant hit
Saudi Aramco refinery attacked by drone on March 19 to supply fuel to European customers / Photo: Skorzewiak/Shutterstock.com
On March 19, futures for the benchmark Mark Brent crude oil rose by more than 10%, exceeding the $119 per barrel mark in the course of trading. Then the growth slowed down a bit, at the time of publication of this text Brent was trading above $116 per barrel.
Following this, European stock indices intensified their decline: the Stoxx 600 lost 2%, the German DAX collapsed by 2.2%.
The surge was triggered by a sharp escalation of conflict in the Middle East, with Iran launching a series of attacks on regional energy infrastructure in response to an Israeli strike on Iran's South Pars gas field. One of the main targets on Thursday was Saudi Aramco's SAMREF refinery in the port of Yanbu on the Red Sea coast. Saudi Arabia's defense ministry said a drone fell on the facility, Bloomberg reported. An industry source Reuters noted that the damage from the attack was minimal.
The attack on the Yanbu refinery is the first time since the beginning of the conflict that Aramco's facilities on the Red Sea have been hit, according to Bloomberg. The SAMREF refinery, a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and U.S. Exxon Mobil, is critical for exports: Riyadh relies on it to supply diesel and other sought-after fuels to European consumers, the agency emphasizes.
The risks of supply disruptions are now unprecedentedly high. After Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which up to 20 percent of the world's oil supply passes in peacetime, in late February, the port of Yanbu remained one of the two main export windows for Gulf Arab oil. The second alternative route, the port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, was also hit earlier, forcing the suspension of its operations. It is unclear at this point whether loading has resumed today, Reuters writes.
Qatar's state-owned QatarEnergy on March 18 reported "extensive damage" caused by Iranian missiles to the Ras Laffan complex, Qatar's main LNG production site. This triggered a rally in gas futures in Europe.
At the same time, Saudi Arabia claimed to have intercepted four ballistic missiles fired towards Riyadh, while UAE authorities were forced to suspend operations at the Habshan gas complex after a drone was eliminated.
This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor
