Crude oil prices rose more than 1% on Friday to over $120
Crude oil prices rose more than 1% to over $120 on Friday amid the impact of a missile attack on an oil distribution facility in Saudi Arabia and rumors that the US wil be releasing potential oil reserves.
Brent crude rose $1.62, or 1.4%, to $120.65 a barrel, and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was up $1.56, or 1.4%, to close at $113.90. Both had previously dropped $3.
Both benchmarks posted their first weekly gains in three weeks - Brent rose more than 11.5% and WTI gained 8.8%.
The Iran-linked Houthi movement, which is fighting a Saudi-led coalition, is said to have launched missiles at Aramco's facilities in Jeddah and drones at Ras Tanura and Rabigh refineries. Saudi Arabia has said that the Houthi attacks on oil facilities will not cause any oil supply shortages in global markets.
As Houthi attacks become more frequent, there has been another issue imerged to worry about as it could potentially affect Saudi Arabian output while the market already avoiding Russian oil supplies.
The new attack comes just five days after the Houthi group caused a temporary trouble in production at a refinery.
With global oil stocks at their lowest level since 2014, analysts said the market remains vulnerable to any supply shocks.
A source said the Biden administration is considering another oil release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which could be greater than the 30 million-barrel sales earlier this month if that happens.
The number of US oil rigs rose seven this week to 531, the highest level since April 2020, as the US government called on producers to increase production after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Oil prices fell in the early hours of the session as exports from Kazakhstan's CPC terminal partially resumed and EU members were divided and gave up on embargoing Russian energy.
