-By Teddy Nwanunobi
Following reports of terrorist attacks on Saudi Arabia’s facilities, oil prices jumped past the $70 a barrel price level, at the first trading session of the week for the first time since the worst pandemic in human history began.
This was even as the U.S. crude touched its highest price level in more than two years.
A drone and ballistic missile was reported to have targeted Saudi Arabia’s oil port and Aramco’s residential area on Sunday.
Reports say that Brent crude futures, at the first time of writing, went up by more than 2 per cent, trading at $70.84 a barrel in early Asian trade, the highest since Jan. 8, 2020, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for April surged by 2.4 per cent, to $67.69, the highest since October 2018.
An official at the Saudi Arabian ministry of energy confirmed that one of the petroleum tank farms at Ras Tanura Port was targeted by a drone coming from the sea.
“This is in reference to the statement issued by the ministry of energy in regards to the failed attempted targeting of one of the petroleum tank farms in Ras Tanura Port in the Eastern Province using a bomb-laden drone that came from the sea, and the attempt to target Aramco facilities in Dhahran.
“Those failed attempts did not target the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s security and economic assets, but the core of the global economy and its oil supplies, as well as the security of global energy.
“The attacking bomb-laden drone that came via the sea was intercepted and destroyed prior to reaching its target. The ballistic missile that was launched to target Aramco facilities in Dhahran was intercepted and destroyed as well. The interception resulted in scattered debris that fell in close proximity to civilians and civilian objects,” Saudi Arabian minister of defence, Turki Al-Maliki, said while explaining the attempted attack.
Ras Tanura is one of the world’s largest oil shipping ports.
Huthi, a rebel group from Yemen, has claimed the attack.
Shrapnel from a ballistic missile also fell near Saudi Aramco’s residential area in Dhahran where thousands of the company’s employees and their families live.