Brent slipped back below $105 after Riyadh moved to keep Asian refiners supplied, easing the panic that had pushed crude to four-month highs this week.
Oil prices dropped again in early trading on Thursday, a second straight day of losses, after news that Saudi Arabia is routing extra crude cargoes through Oman calmed fears that Middle East supply was about to run short.
Brent crude futures, the global benchmark, fell $1.24 or 1.2% to $104.59 a barrel by 0049 GMT. United States West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were down $1.14 or 1.1% at $101.29. Both contracts had already shed about $3 on Wednesday.
What changed
People familiar with the arrangement say Saudi Arabia is offering Asian refiners additional loadings through ship-to-ship transfers off Sohar port in Oman. That workaround softens the blow from attacks on the kingdom's East-West pipeline, which carries crude across the country to the Red Sea port of Yanbu.
Two pumping stations on that pipeline were damaged in an attack last week. Three oil and security sources quoted in the original report said it is not yet clear how long repairs will take.
Prices had climbed to roughly four-month highs earlier in the week after shipping industry sources reported that crude loadings at Yanbu were suspended and that Riyadh had cancelled some deliveries to European buyers.
Yanbu matters more than usual right now. It became Saudi Arabia's main export outlet after Iran began blockading the Strait of Hormuz, following attacks on Iran by the United States and Israel at the end of February. Before the war, about one-fifth of the world's oil supply passed through Hormuz.
Analyst view
Hiroyuki Kikukawa, chief strategist at Nissan Securities Investment, said the Oman route had taken some pressure off the market. "Concerns over supply tightness eased slightly following news that Saudi Arabia would ship cargo via Oman," he said.
He added that traders are also watching next week's United States-China summit, and that hopes of some easing of Middle East tensions are keeping a lid on prices.
The risk has not gone away
The fighting is still escalating. Saudi warplanes struck targets in Yemen on Wednesday, and the Iran-backed Houthi movement said it fired drones and missiles at Saudi cities, after an advance that has widened Tehran's reach in the conflict.
Separately, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the statistics arm of the American energy department, said on Wednesday that American crude stocks fell by about 640,000 barrels last week. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a draw of 1.62 million barrels, so the smaller drop pointed to softer demand than the market had priced in.
For readers in Ghana and in the diaspora, Brent is the benchmark most commonly cited when fuel import costs are discussed, so sharp swings in either direction are worth following in the weeks ahead.
Reported first by MyJoyOnline on 2026-09-17. This article was written for our readers based on that report. Follow the link for the original coverage.
