Oil Prices Jump After Attack on Saudi Arabia Oil Infrastructure

Global oil prices posted the largest ever intraday jump to more than $71 a barrel after a strike on a Saudi Arabian oil infrastructure on Saturday. Yemen's Houthi group claimed responsibility for the attack against Saudi, a new tactic against the Saudi-led (and US-backed) military intervention supporting the Yemen Government.

• State energy producer Saudi Aramco lost about 5.7 million barrels per day of output on Saturday after 10 unmanned aerial vehicles struck the world's biggest crude-processing facility in Abqaiq and the Kingdom's second-biggest oil field in Khurais.
• The volume of the oil supply disrupted by the attack exceeds the cumulative non-OPEC supply growth over the entire 2014-2018 period. Saudi Aramco has not given a timeline for the resumption of full output.
• Prices backed off the $71 peak after US President Donald Trump authorized the use of some of the United States' emergency strategic petroleum reserves to stabilize supply (and prices).