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

Brent rises 3.7% to $112.80 amid tensions involving Saudi facilities

Key Facts

1Brent rose 3.7% to $112.80 a barrel on Thursday after touching a 5-month high.
2WTI closed on Wednesday at $97.15 a barrel, down 67 cents, or 0.7%.
3The Energy Information Administration forecast an average Brent spot price of $105 in the fourth quarter of 2026, up $14 from the previous month's estimate.
4The U.S. average gasoline price reached $4.33 a gallon on the Friday preceding the Associated Press report, up 45% from its pre-war level.

Brent crude rose 3.7% to $112.80 a barrel on Thursday, according to the Associated Press, amid regional tensions that included a Houthi announcement that the group had targeted Saudi oil facilities. The price reported by the agency followed crude's rise to its highest level in 5 months, with the advance coinciding with persistent concerns over Middle East supplies. Reuters reported on October 21 that the Houthis had claimed responsibility the previous Monday for attacks on targets inside Saudi Arabia. The group's announcement included targeting an Aramco site in Yanbu and the Shaybah oil field, along with Riyadh and Abha airports. According to the wording reported by Reuters, the group said it had targeted these sites, bringing together oil-sector installations and aviation facilities inside the kingdom in its announcement.

Brent's rise on Thursday followed a volatile session for West Texas Intermediate on Wednesday, when U.S. crude rose in early trading before ending lower, according to Reuters. During that earlier part of the session, the price stood at $98.58 a barrel, up 76 cents, or 0.78%, before the market subsequently reversed direction. At the close, WTI settled at $97.15 a barrel, according to Reuters' end-of-session report. That represented a decline of 67 cents, or 0.7%, from the previous session's close, after crude had posted gains earlier the same day. Against the backdrop of this volatility, WTI had closed at $101.41 a barrel on October 16, 2026, according to an earlier EL7 report, putting its latest moves in the context of prices that had already exceeded that level during the month.

On the supply side, a Reuters survey showed that production by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, rose in September, alongside continuing tensions surrounding energy facilities and transport routes. Saudi Arabia and Iraq led the increase in the organization's output that month, according to the survey, accounting for the main rise in OPEC oil supply. In maritime transport, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its October report that ships were avoiding conflict areas along their routes. The agency said "ships are also taking longer routes," describing the change in shipping movements caused by those areas. It said longer routes reduced the number of ships available for transport, adding constraints on fleet movements to the backdrop of a market simultaneously seeing an increase in the organization's production.

The war's impact extended to consumers in the United States, where the national average gasoline price reached $4.33 a gallon on the Friday preceding the Associated Press report on fuel prices, citing the American Automobile Association. That average was 45% above its pre-war level, according to the figures reported by the agency, highlighting the scale of the increase reaching U.S. filling stations. Looking ahead, the U.S. Energy Information Administration forecast in its October report that the Brent spot price would average $105 a barrel in the fourth quarter of 2026. The agency thus raised its estimate for that average by $14 a barrel from the forecast published in the previous month's report. The estimate concerns the average spot price over the entire quarter, while the Brent price reported by the Associated Press in Thursday's trading was $112.80 a barrel.