Oil Prices Spike After Saudi Attack Disrupts Global Supply
NEW YORK (CNN Business) - Oil prices have spiked after a devastating attack on the heart of Saudi Arabian oil production over the weekend shocked markets and could disrupt the global supply of crude for some time.
Prices initially surged as much as 18% but retreated after U.S. President Donald Trump said night that he had authorized the use of oil from the country's emergency oil supply. Trump said oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or SPR, would be used "to keep the markets well-supplied." The U.S. reserve is the largest backup pool of oil.
State-owned Saudi Aramco oil facilities were badly damaged in the strikes and restoring production to their pre-attack levels "will take weeks, not days," according to two Saudi sources familiar with the kingdom's oil operations. "This is unprecedented in scale, and impact," they said.
U.S. oil futures were trading at more than $60 a barrel — a spike of 10% — in New York on Monday morning. Futures of Brent crude, the global benchmark, traded at more than $66 per barrel, up 10.6%.
Prices initially surged as much as 18% but retreated after U.S. President Donald Trump said night that he had authorized the use of oil from the country's emergency oil supply. Trump said oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or SPR, would be used "to keep the markets well-supplied." The U.S. reserve is the largest backup pool of oil.
State-owned Saudi Aramco oil facilities were badly damaged in the strikes and restoring production to their pre-attack levels "will take weeks, not days," according to two Saudi sources familiar with the kingdom's oil operations. "This is unprecedented in scale, and impact," they said.
U.S. oil futures were trading at more than $60 a barrel — a spike of 10% — in New York on Monday morning. Futures of Brent crude, the global benchmark, traded at more than $66 per barrel, up 10.6%.