EL7.AI
CommoditiesMedium•22 October 2026•
3 min read

Brent rises to $111.24 as Aramco evacuates headquarters and fighting escalates

Key Facts

1Brent futures rose 2.2%, or $2.42, to $111.24 a barrel at 14:45 GMT.
2U.S. commercial crude inventories fell to 412.5 million barrels from 415.6 million the previous week.
3The EIA forecast an average Brent spot price of $105 in the fourth quarter, up $14 from the previous month's forecast.
4Saudi Arabia's energy ministry said operations at the Shaybah field were unaffected by the attack.

Brent crude futures rose to $111.24 a barrel during trading on Thursday, 22 October 2026, amid supply concerns as fighting intensified between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, according to Reuters. Futures were up $2.42 a barrel, or 2.2%, at 14:45 GMT. Amid the escalation, Aramco asked employees to evacuate its headquarters in Dhahran, the agency reported. On U.S.-Israeli contacts, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed his visit to Israel and talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to CBS News. Hegseth declined to disclose the substance of the meeting, saying: "Of course, the nature of our conversations is not something I'm going to discuss, but they have been good partners and I appreciate that."

The evacuation of Aramco's headquarters followed a drone attack on the company's Shaybah field on Wednesday morning, Bloomberg reported. The attack on the field killed two people, in the latest assault on Saudi energy facilities. Saudi Arabia's energy ministry said operations at Shaybah were unaffected by the attack, according to the agency. The field has production capacity of one million barrels of crude a day, placing it among oil facilities that have come under attack while continuing to operate. Operations at Shaybah thus continued, according to the ministry's confirmation, despite the fatalities caused by the drone attack.

Against the backdrop of trading, U.S. commercial crude oil inventories fell to 412.5 million barrels in the week ended 16 October, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Inventories stood at 415.6 million barrels in the week ended 9 October, with these figures excluding oil held in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. U.S. distillate inventories, meanwhile, rose to 104.3 million barrels from 102.6 million the previous week. The increase in distillate inventories came as the EIA described the diesel market in its October report as "extremely tight." The agency linked that tightness to increased demand for crude oil to meet refining needs, adding upward pressure on crude prices. Reuters reported in its coverage of the October outlook that U.S. retail diesel prices were expected to remain above $6 a gallon during the month.

Thursday's rise followed an increase in the average Brent spot price in September to $114 a barrel, according to the EIA's October report. That average was up $23 a barrel from August. On crude transport routes, the agency said attacks on Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline temporarily halted flows through it. The pipeline serves as a major oil export route bypassing the Strait of Hormuz, according to the agency. Those attacks therefore hit one of the alternative supply routes to the strait, alongside attacks targeting Saudi oil production facilities.

In its outlook for the fourth quarter of 2026, the EIA forecast an average Brent spot price of $105 a barrel. The agency raised its estimate for that average by $14 a barrel from the previous month's forecast in its report issued in October. Its forecasts assume that convoys passing through the Strait of Hormuz will help increase regional production and exports over the forecast period. It also counts on alternative export routes and increased use of ship-to-ship cargo transfers to support that increase. The EIA is scheduled to publish the next update to its Short-Term Energy Outlook on 10 November 2026.