Saudis Expect Full Oil Exports Restored by End of the Month

Oil prices drop 5%, Trump scraps plan to access Strategic Reserves

Saturday’s drone attacks on Saudi oil refineries led to a Monday spike in oil prices, and anticipation of further spikes on a possible war. Tuesday, the prices dropped 5% on expectations that oil production isn’t going to be out for long at all.

Saudi Arabia’s energy minister now says that Saudi oil exports should be back to full levels by the end of the month, which is to say less than two weeks from now. That’s nowhere near the outage anyone was expecting.

While the incident was initially portrayed as a huge deal, the reality is that the oil exports were so not affected that President Trump now says he no longer intends to have to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Initially presented as a major threat to all Saudi oil production, it now seems that Saturday’s attack was far over-stated, and the damage done is to be fairly quickly rectified, bringing the situation back to the status quo.

Author: Jason Ditz

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.