Oil prices jump $3 on Houthi attacks, oil spill

Oil prices surged more than $3 on Friday, reaching their highest levels in nearly six months, following Houthi attacks in Saudi Arabia that raised concerns about further disruptions to energy supplies in the Middle East. Brent crude futures settled at $116.72 a barrel, while U.S. WTI crude finished at $103.27 a barrel, marking a 6.2% and 1.8% weekly increase for Brent and WTI, respectively.

The U.S. Department of Energy authorized an emergency exchange of up to 400,000 barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to address a supply disruption affecting Phillips 66’s Lake Charles refinery in Louisiana. Additionally, Asian spot LNG prices climbed to a fresh multi-year high on firm demand, driven by colder weather forecasts in northeast Asia and lingering geopolitical risks from the U.S.-Iran conflict.

European LNG markets also saw a rise as Middle East geopolitical developments and Norwegian pipeline outages fueled concerns.

Brief written by urgent.news from Qatar Tribune Business's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.