Oil traders watch Aramco Riyadh fire as Houthis claim strike; Brent closed at $102.25
With futures markets closed for the weekend, traders are watching whether a reported fire at an Aramco site near Riyadh confirms damage before U.S. crude reopens Sunday evening.
Weekend watch: Oil markets were closed over the weekend after Brent crude settled Friday at $102.25 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate at $91.11, etf.net reported. U.S. crude futures were scheduled to reopen Sunday at 6 p.m. Eastern; Brent and WTI ETF products trade Monday. On Saturday, Yemen’s Houthis claimed a missile and drone strike on an Aramco facility in Riyadh, Al Jazeera and ABC News reported. AFP said firefighters were fighting a blaze at Aramco’s Riyadh refinery south of the capital, and a witness told Reuters there was smoke and fire near an Aramco facility, etf.net said.
As of Saturday evening, Saudi authorities had not confirmed an attack, and Aramco had not commented on the cause of the fire, whether the refinery had stopped, or any injuries, those outlets reported. There was no verified production outage yet; Monday’s price reaction will depend on confirmation of damage or disruption versus a fade if the claim is disproven, etf.net noted.
History and supply context: In March 2022 the Houthis claimed an attack on the same refinery; Saudi Arabia’s Energy Ministry said supplies were not affected, etf.net reported. The September 2019 attacks on Abqaiq and Khurais suspended 5.7 million barrels per day. Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline to Yanbu was shut Sept. 11 after drone attacks that Riyadh blamed on Iraqi militias, then restarted Sept. 22, etf.net said. For the week ending Sept. 28, Kpler tracked crude through the Strait of Hormuz at 13.5 million barrels per day — a pre-war pace — while refined products through the strait ran 677,000 barrels per day versus 3.6 million before the war.
Policy backdrop: On Friday, before Saturday’s fire reports, the G7 pledged to release 100 million barrels over four months, with substantial diesel in the first 20 days, etf.net reported. Aramco fuel from domestic refineries is mostly sold at home, so a Riyadh stoppage would mainly hit domestic fuel if the plant stopped, the outlet said.
What this means: Traders reopen the week with Brent already above $100 and an unverified claim on a Saudi refinery — a setup where confirmed disruption could lift prices, while a cleared-up fire story could let the risk premium fade.