Houthi Strike Claim on Saudi Refinery Lifts Brent Above $115
Brent crude rose 1.32% to $115.59 a barrel this morning after the Iran-backed Houthis said they had hit Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia’s largest refinery, with a ballistic missile. That undid most of Tuesday’s fall: Brent had dropped 1.7% to close at $113.88 on hopes of diplomacy. Donald Trump told a Texas rally that the war with Iran would end on his terms.
The claim is so far only the Houthis’ own, and no damage assessment has appeared in approved reporting. It cuts across Tuesday’s more hopeful signal. After meeting his security chief Mohsen Rezaei, Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said the state of “neither war nor peace” must end. He also stressed keeping control of the Strait of Hormuz. In Yemen, nearly 100 fighters have been killed in clashes near the Bab el-Mandeb, and a Central Command estimate puts the war’s cost to the US at $47bn. UBS expects Brent to stay near $110 until the year-end, as global inventories have fallen by about 500 million barrels since February. “Vessels remain exposed to attacks,” its analyst Giovanni Staunovo noted.