West Texas Intermediate, or the US Crude variant is down 2% this morning, below the mark of $95 a barrel. Brent Crude, which had retested levels of $119 a barrel on Thursday on concerns of further escalation of energy infra attacks, has cooled off by around 3% this morning to trade around $105 a barrel.
Oil prices were surging on Thursday after Israel attacked Iran’s South Pars gas field, the biggest in the country, not just for the domestic market, but also for exports to Iraq and Turkey. In response, Iran launched attacks at Qatar’s Ras Tanura Industrial Complex, causing damage to QatarEnergy’s gas infrastructure, which, according to its CEO, will take up to five years to repair and cause a revenue loss of $20 billion annually.
Saudi Arabia also said that a drone hit its Samref refinery on the Red Sea, a major export hub for the country. The UAE also shut a major gas facility due to falling debris from intercepted missiles, while two oil refineries in Kuwait were struck by drones that caused fires, as per Kuwait Petroleum. Iraq reported a loss in power generation after Iran halted gas supplies in the wake of South Pars damages.
Trump told reporters on Thursday that he had told Netanyahu to not attack Iran’s energy infra again. “I told him not to do that. He won’t do that,” Trump said. Earlier, the US President wrote on Truth Social that Israel attacked the field in “anger” and that the US was not aware of such an attack, contradicting multiple reports, which suggested that the US officials were in the loop.
US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said that the US is looking at easing sanctions on Iran oil to bring prices down and may also look at a unilateral release of some SPR reserves of its own, beyond the ones committed to the International Energy Agency. Trump Administration officials also said that there are no plans to ban the exports of oil and gas.
The IEA also said that Japan, Canada and South Korea will be among the biggest contributors to the broad release of stockpiles, aiding a further cool-off in prices.
(With Inputs From Agencies)
