Brent rises 1.1% to $110.02 as U.S. orders personnel to leave Saudi Arabia
Key Facts
Brent crude futures rose 1.1% to $110.02 a barrel in early trading on Thursday, 22 October 2026, amid concerns over supply disruptions as tensions escalated in the Middle East. According to prices reported by Investing.com, the benchmark reached that level at 00:16 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 0.9% to $98.05 a barrel at the same time. The gains came after the U.S. State Department ordered some diplomats and family members of U.S. government employees to leave Saudi Arabia, according to the Associated Press. The agency linked the order to fears of escalating Houthi attacks, with targets inside the kingdom including energy facilities, airports and infrastructure, according to the State Department.
In the latest airport attack, a resident of Saudi Arabia was killed in an attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam on Wednesday evening, the Associated Press reported, citing the Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation. The authority said 8 people were injured in the attack, which also caused damage to the airport. The U.S. State Department requires U.S. government employees working in the kingdom to obtain special permission to use any airport in Saudi Arabia. The Australian government, meanwhile, warned in its travel advice of major disruption to air traffic across all major Saudi airports. It said the disruptions included frequent airspace closures, flight cancellations and delays. The U.S. State Department said in its warning that attacks had targeted "cities, infrastructure, airports, military bases, diplomatic facilities and energy facilities across the country".
Thursday's rise came after Brent settled at $108.82 a barrel on Wednesday, according to Reuters. West Texas Intermediate closed that session at $97.15 a barrel, down 67 cents, or 0.7%. The front-month Brent contract had touched $111.99 during Tuesday's session, its highest level in 5 months. In the United States, the Energy Information Administration released its weekly report on 21 October covering the period ended 16 October 2026. The report showed commercial crude inventories, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, fell to 412.5 million barrels. Those inventories stood at 415.6 million barrels the previous week, a rounded weekly decline of 3.1 million barrels, according to the agency's table. The draw exceeded expectations among analysts polled by Reuters, who had forecast a decline of 820,000 barrels.
The decline in U.S. inventories extended to gasoline, with stocks falling to 205.3 million barrels from 208.3 million the previous week, according to the Energy Information Administration. The rounded weekly decline in gasoline inventories was 3.0 million barrels in the week ended 16 October. By contrast, distillate inventories rose to 104.3 million barrels from 102.6 million barrels a week earlier. The rounded weekly increase in those stocks was 1.7 million barrels, in contrast to the draws recorded in crude and gasoline. On production, the agency lowered its estimate of U.S. crude output to 13,269 thousand barrels per day from 13,679 thousand barrels per day the previous week, a decline of 410 thousand barrels per day.
In a measure concerning heating fuel supplies, the U.S. Department of Energy announced on 21 October 2026 an exchange offering from the Northeast reserve. The offering covers up to 315,000 barrels of low-sulfur heating oil. The department said the exchange aimed to address supply disruptions. It set the deadline for bids at 11 a.m. U.S. Central Time on Tuesday, 27 October 2026. Fuel transfers or deliveries under the exchange are scheduled to be completed by 13 November 2026, according to the timetable announced by the department.