Attacks on Saudi export pipeline push WTI crude to $107.02 a barrel, a 30-day high
Chinese domestic crude prices set records as Beijing runs down the stockpiles it has been using since the Iran war began to hold prices down.
Strikes by Yemen's Houthi rebels on a Saudi export pipeline have cut the flow of crude reaching the kingdom's loading terminals, and buyers bid up every barrel still moving. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark grade, settled at $107.02 a barrel on Tuesday, Sept. 15 — the highest close in the Energy Department’s last 30 trading days — up from $77.33 on Aug. 4. China has spent the Iran war absorbing the shock by selling oil out of its own reserves rather than buying more on the world market, which held prices down for everyone. The U.S. Embassy in Riyadh told Americans on Wednesday, Sept. 16, to reconsider travel to the kingdom. Still open. How much of the line's capacity is out, and for how long, Riyadh has not said. Without that, how much of the six-week move in crude the outage explains is not known.
