WTI Closes at $103.27 as Supply Concerns Mount
Key Facts
West Texas Intermediate closed at $103.27 a barrel, up $3.80, or 3.8%, in Friday’s session on October 23, marking its highest close since April. Brent rose $3.55, or 3.14%, to $116.72 a barrel, its highest level since April 29. The gains came amid fears of supply disruptions after a series of Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, including energy infrastructure, according to Reuters. Adam Turnquist, chief multi-asset strategist at LPL Financial, said, "Supply disruption fears drove the rally." He added that the attacks by Iran-backed Houthis included energy facilities.
Weekly gains were stronger in Brent, which ended the week up 6%, compared with a 2.3% increase for WTI. The divergence highlights the global crude benchmark’s sensitivity to risks affecting oil flows from the Gulf. EL7 data showed Brent closing at $109.55 a barrel on October 19, before reaching $116.72 on October 23. The rise in prices coincided with broader concerns about commercial shipping in the region. The Associated Press said October saw the highest number of reported attacks on commercial shipping since March, according to the UK Maritime Trade Operations agency.
In a separate incident near the Shaybah field on October 21, Saudi Arabia’s Energy Ministry said debris from a drone intercepted by air defenses killed two people and injured two. The dead were a Nepali and a Filipino, while the injured were Pakistani and Indian. The ministry said the incident sparked a fire in a vehicle outside the facility’s boundaries, but did not affect field operations. Casualties near the site do not mean the field itself was struck or that its production stopped. The Associated Press reported that Aramco operates the field.
Aramco ordered the evacuation of its headquarters in Dhahran on Thursday, October 22, according to a Reuters report published the following day. The measure was separate in timing from the Shaybah incident on October 21. In another incident, Saudi Arabia’s Energy Ministry said, according to the Associated Press, that a limited fire broke out Tuesday in an Aramco administrative building in the Eastern Province after it was targeted, with no injuries reported. The available facts do not provide details linking the fire to the Shaybah incident or the headquarters evacuation. These events highlight the risks facing Saudi energy facilities as regional tensions escalate.
Concerns also extended to the Strait of Hormuz, where oil tankers continued to transit under U.S. military protection, according to the Associated Press. The agency said transfers known as the "dark shuttle," overseen by U.S. Central Command, helped restore oil shipments from the Gulf to levels close to those before the war. Meanwhile, Aramco chief Amin Nasser said the capacity of the East-West pipeline had risen from 2 million barrels a day to 7 million barrels a day, with oil volumes transported through it increased to bypass the strait. These flows and transport routes provide a partial alternative amid the vulnerability of maritime traffic. But fears of attacks on shipping remained in the background of the price rally.
On the diplomatic front, the Associated Press said Iran was proposing to fully reopen the strait within a week if the United States agreed to conditions including ending its blockade of Iranian ports. The agency reported that the U.S. president rejected an earlier proposal, while indirect talks continued. U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric called for the waterway to reopen and tensions to ease, saying, "We need to see this waterway reopen, and tensions come down." In Saudi Arabia, investors are watching for the release of third-quarter GDP data, listed on the calendar for November 1. GDP had contracted 4.7% year over year in the second quarter of 2026.