Oil Plummets 6% as Saudi Minister Says
Supplies Fully Restored
September 18, 2019
Oil prices tumbled about 6% on Tuesday after Saudi Arabia’s energy
minister said the country has managed to restore oil supplies to
where they stood before weekend attacks on its facilities shut
5% of global oil output.
Saturday’s attacks raised the specter of a major supply shock in
a market that in recent months has been preoccupied with demand
concerns and faltering global growth. Oil surged as much as 20%
at one point on Monday.
During a news conference on Tuesday, Saudi Energy Minister Prince
Abdulaziz bin Salman said the kingdom has recovered supplies by
tapping inventories, and lost oil output of 5.7 million barrels
per day (bpd) by the end of September.
Brent crude futures sank $4.47, or 6.5%, to settle at $64.55 a
barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell
$3.56, or 5.7%, to settle at $59.34 a barrel.
Brent sank more than 7% during the news conference.
In a note, Caroline Bain, chief commodities economist for Capital
Economics, said: “The latest news means that we will not be
rushing to revise up our oil price forecast of $60 per barrel at
end-2019. That said, there remain some important questions to be
answered about the attacks, which may mean that we will have to
consider a permanently higher risk premium in our price
forecasts.”
(Reuters)
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