Reports of a drone attack against Saudi oil refineries over the weekend sent the price of Brent oil futures up to $68.22 on Monday. Where it goes from there heavily depends on what happens next.
Analysts say that a persistent outage of the Saudi facilities could bring the price up to $75, and that any military response could bring it to $85. They added that a full-scale war in the region could easily bring the price up to $100 a barrel.
President Trump dismissed the whole issue, Tweeting “PLENTY OF OIL!!!” over the weekend and since insisting that he doesn’t consider the latest price increase a problem at all.
As a more practical measure, Trump announced that he has authorized the release of oil from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve in a “to-be-determined amount.” Trump has insisted that he doesn’t want war, which suggests that the worst-case scenario types of war are unlikely.
Oil Prices Could Surge Much Higher If Saudi Attack Leads to War
Trump authorizes strategic petroleum release to keep market supplied
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
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