Oil prices rise as Saudi oil tankers attacked near volatile Iran-monitored shipping route
Oil prices ticked up this morning as one of the world’s largest producers, Saudi Arabia, said two tankers carrying its oil were attacked in the Gulf of Oman, despite tensions between the US and China exerting downward pressure.
On Sunday Emirati authorities confirmed that four ships had been sabotaged at a port near the Straits of Hormuz, with two of them confirmed as Saudi this morning.
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There were no suggestions of who was behind the attacks.
The incident will ramp up tensions in a region where Saudi Arabia and Iran have been at loggerheads for decades for local supremacy.
Iran’s foreign ministry called for an investigation into the “worrisome and dreadful” incidents.
The country has previously threatened it might close the Straits of Hormuz as the US ramps up sanctions.
The move would cut off one of the world’s biggest oil shipping lanes, thought to account for around a fifth of global oil consumption.
It links the oil producing nations of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Qatar, famed for its natural gas, with the Indian Ocean and international trade routes.
The US re-imposed old sanctions on Iran last year after President Trump withdrew from an agreement on nuclear weapons proliferation with the Islamic republic.
Last week Saudi Arabia stepped into the debate, saying it could meet demand from buyers of Iranian crude as sanctions against the country were ramped up even further.
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International standard Brent crude ticked up 1.6 per cent to $71.75 in the early afternoon UK time.
However trade tensions between China and the Trump administration is pushing in the opposite direction.