Headlines

Oil prices jumped more than 2% on Monday, after new Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia and Iranian attacks on ships in the Gulf compounded supply concerns following the closure of a key Saudi oil pipeline. Brent crude futures rose $2.90, or 2.77%, to $107.51 per barrel as of 2313 GMT. WTI futures rose $2.27, or 2.27%, to $102.32 per barrel. Prices had initially risen more than 3% at market open. Saudi Arabian state media on Sunday released video footage of damage to homes and a mosque from [Read more]

U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to stop targeting Russian diesel infrastructure, saying the attacks were causing a shortage of the fuel that is "hurting the world". A wave of long-distance Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian oil refineries in recent months has reduced that country's fuel production, triggering gasoline shortages across the country. Ukraine, which faces regular Russian attacks on its own energy infrastructure, says [Read more]

Maritime trackers received new reports of an attack on a ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, adding to concerns about Iran-related threats to energy supplies after Saudi Arabia shut down a vital oil pipeline. The British navy-affiliated agency ‌UKMTO said it had a report of a projectile hitting a vessel as it moved through the Strait of Hormuz. The amount of damage and the status of the crew were unknown as of early Sunday, the agency said. UKMTO's report came the day after Saudi Arabia [Read more]

An understanding between Iran and Oman does not provide for the immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz but establishes the basis on which it could reopen, an Iranian source told the semi-official Tasnim news agency on Saturday. The source said the arrangement would be a step towards Iran exercising sovereignty over the strait and that its reopening depended entirely on the United States meeting Tehran's conditions. (Reporting by Dubai newsroom, Editing by Louise Heavens) [Read more]

The U.S. has asked tankers travelling through the Strait of Hormuz to sail only at specific times to guarantee military protection after Iran stepped up attacks on ships travelling at night, the Financial Times reported on Saturday. Washington has been offering air-based defence since May to ships wanting to sail via a route hugging the Omani coast on the strait's southern side. That period during which ships would be protected was cut down to two specific time slots daily around the start of [Read more]

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Faleh al-Zaidi has agreed to an Iranian request for a joint investigation into the discovery of drone launch platforms near the Iraqi-Iranian border, the prime minister's office said on Saturday. The investigation will examine the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the platforms near the border area, the statement said, after it was used to launch attacks on the Saudi Arabia East-West pipeline. (Reporting by Muayad Hameed. Writing by Muhammad Al Gebaly. Editing [Read more]

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Iran was probably responsible for an aerial attack on Saudi Arabia that shut down its East-West pipeline, one of the kingdom's main routes for exporting crude while bypassing the Strait of Hormuz. "I think they are, probably they are," Trump told reporters in Dublin when asked if Iran was responsible for the attack on the vital oil conduit. The U.S. president also said that he had spoken with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom he [Read more]

A lightning offensive by the Iran-aligned Houthis has put the militants in a position to control a crucial Middle East waterway, creating a major new problem for U.S. President Donald Trump as his war with Iran grinds on in its seventh month. Widening the Middle East conflict, Houthi fighters have advanced south along Yemen's coast, increasing their ability to choke off the Bab el-Mandeb Strait — the "Gate of Tears" at the mouth of the Red Sea — giving Tehran potential leverage over both of the [Read more]

Saudi Arabia has shut down its East-West pipeline after the vital oil conduit came under aerial attack in the widening Middle East war. The world’s largest crude oil exporter temporarily closed the pipeline after a drone attack that both Baghdad and Riyadh said had originated in Iraq, where Iranian-backed militias operate. Iraq dismissed a military commander on Saturday in response to the attack. The 1,200-kilometre (745-mile) pipeline running across the Arabian Peninsula had helped Saudi [Read more]