Drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities drive up fuel prices; Brent future jumps almost $12 a barrel opening

New Delhi, September 16: Up ahead in the drone attack on the world's largest oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia and a major oil field on Saturday, the global oil prices have surged the most on record.

 

In an extraordinary start to trading, Brent futures jumped almost $12 a barrel in the seconds after the open on Monday, the biggest intraday advance in dollar terms since they were launched in 1988.

 

 

However, on the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate contracts were frozen for about two minutes after the scale of the move delayed the market open.

 

India, being the world's third largest oil importer, imports over 80 per cent of the total oil requirements and such a hike amidst is slated to inflate the import bill and disrupt the country's fiscal position.

 

Ten unmanned aerial vehicles attacked Saudi state owned oil giant Aramco's crude-processing facility in Abqaiq as well as the kingdom's second biggest oil field in Khurais, sparking huge fires and disrupting more than half of Saudi Arabia's oil capacity, an estimated 5.7 million barrels on Saturday.

 

With the world's largest exporter of oil taking such a massive hit, it is wide clear that around 5 per cent of global oil supplies is to be severely impacted, while tensions across the Persian Gulf are already fanned over the US-Iran nuclear standoff, likely to escalate.