The Current Affairs Digest · ages 15+ · 2026-10-24
Oil Jumps Above $114 as Houthi Attacks on Saudi Arabia Continue
Aramco moves staff out of its Dhahran headquarters as Brent heads for a third weekly gain.
Brent crude, the benchmark price for oil traded around the world, rose 3.59% to $117.20 a barrel at 7:58pm UAE time on Friday 23 October. Earlier in the day it had traded about 1.1% higher at $114.5. US crude (WTI) climbed 3.57% to $103. Brent was on track for a third straight weekly gain.
The driver was a new wave of attacks on Saudi Arabia. Over 48 hours the Houthis, an armed group from Yemen, claimed strikes on the Saudi Defence Ministry headquarters in Riyadh, King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, Abha International Airport and an Aramco site in Yanbu. These are Houthi claims; the report does not confirm them independently. Two people died and several were injured in the attacks at Dammam airport.
Saudi Aramco, the state oil company, then evacuated its Dhahran headquarters, the first such evacuation since the Iran war began in late February. The shipping lane matters too. The UK's maritime trade centre counted 10 attacks on commercial vessels in and near the Strait of Hormuz in the week to 19 October, and called October the worst month for such attacks since March. On 20 October Iran's Revolutionary Guard said three tankers hit naval mines in the strait.
Analysts differ on the strait. MUFG analysts said production and export flows through it remain close to pre-conflict levels, but at elevated shipping rates. Brent had fallen 2.5% to $107.16 on 19 October, after nearly $110 on 16 October, its highest since mid-May. Elsewhere, Libya curtailed output of about 1.4 million barrels a day after a pipeline valve was closed, and a Saudi investment conference due on 26 to 29 October was postponed to 2027.
Why it matters
Saudi Arabia is a major oil exporter, so threats to its airports and oil sites move prices that households and governments, India included, pay far away.
THE PERSIAN GULF. Attacks on Saudi sites and on ships both affect oil.