November 12 Data Do Not Confirm Oil Gains or Targeting of Aramco Facilities
Key Facts
It was not possible to verify that Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude rose in the November 12 session, or that reports of Houthi attacks on Aramco facilities drove prices higher. Resistance levels attributed to the two crude benchmarks in that session could not be verified either. EL7 daily data showed Brent closing at $92.76 a barrel on November 11 and West Texas Intermediate closing at $86.53 a barrel on the same day. Those figures are for the November 11 session and do not establish the direction of trading the following day. The available information therefore does not support attributing the November 12 price move to geopolitical risks or a change in inventories.
One incident involving Aramco dates to November 8, when a company building in Riyadh's financial district was damaged by missile debris after the missiles were intercepted. Saudi Arabia's Energy Ministry said there were no injuries or deaths, while coalition forces said their defenses had intercepted Houthi missiles. The Associated Press reported that the Houthis had claimed to target Riyadh's financial district and other sites. The ministry said there were no injuries at the Aramco facility. The incident remains a security event that preceded the oil session in question and, by itself, is not enough to establish that prices rose on November 12 or to determine what drove the market move.
In a separate incident in the Medina region, Saudi Arabia's Energy Ministry said an attack on Monday caused a limited fire that was quickly extinguished. The ministry added that operations were unaffected and there were no injuries. It did not identify who was responsible for the attack. The statement indicates that, according to the ministry, the incident did not disrupt operations at the facility concerned. The ministry did not attribute the fire to the Houthis or link it to oil prices on November 12.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration had announced that its weekly petroleum status report would be released on Thursday, November 12, 2026, at two times: 12:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. Eastern time, because the federal government was closed on Wednesday. The announcement sets the release time but does not include a reading on crude inventories. Accordingly, the verified facts available here do not include an inventory change that could be used to explain prices in the November 12 session. Available closing data for the previous day put Brent at $92.76 and West Texas Intermediate at $86.53 a barrel on November 11. Any assessment of the following session's move remains separate from those figures and the report's release schedule.
In a broader context of supply pressures, Aramco Chief Executive Amin Nasser said rebuilding inventories while meeting demand could take up to two years. He added that pressure would intensify across the energy chain until the Strait of Hormuz was fully reopened and confidence returned. His estimate came in remarks made on October 12 and concerned the potential time needed to rebuild inventories and pressure on the energy chain. It does not give a figure for oil's move on November 12 or directly explain it. But it places supply security and inventory replenishment among the challenges Nasser cited in his remarks on the energy sector.