New strikes on Saudi Arabia and ships in the Gulf worsened Middle East oil disruption on Sunday, threatening global energy supplies. A vessel was struck in the Strait of Hormuz and Saudi state media showed damage in Jazan, while the Houthis claimed a separate hit on a Saudi military base. Traders expected oil prices to rise when markets reopened, and a planned Oman meeting on shipping routes was postponed.
A satellite image shows a closer view of the damage at the Saudi Arabia East-West pipeline, located across the Arabian Peninsula, after a strike that hit it in Saudi Arabia, Sept. 13. Reuters-Yonhap
ADEN/DUBAI — New strikes on Saudi Arabia and on ships in the Gulf tested nerves in the Middle East on Sunday, after an attack on a Saudi oil pipeline and an advance by Yemen's Houthis threatened to worsen the wartime disruption to global energy supplies.
Oil traders were expecting prices to rise again when markets reopen on Monday, following the weekend developments that jeopardise supplies from the world's biggest exporter, Saudi Arabia.
The British maritime security agency UKMTO said on Sunday that a vessel had been struck by a projectile as it moved through the Strait of Hormuz, causing a fire and forcing the crew to be evacuated. Iran, for its part, said one person was killed and four crew wounded aboard an Iranian commercial vessel struck off its coast.
