TLDR
- Brent crude rose 2% to $107.83 a barrel; WTI climbed 2.1% to $103.50 on Tuesday
- Houthi militants seized Perim Island in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait after taking the port of Mokha
- Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline is offline, with full repairs expected to take six to eight weeks
- Talks between Iran and Gulf states on reopening the Strait of Hormuz have been delayed indefinitely
- Analysts warn global crude inventories may only cover five to eleven weeks of supply
Oil prices pushed above $107 a barrel on Tuesday as fresh Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and a key pipeline outage kept supply concerns elevated across global crude markets.
Brent crude futures rose 2.0% to $107.83 a barrel in early European trading. West Texas Intermediate gained 2.1% to $103.50 a barrel. Both benchmarks briefly hit higher levels on Monday, with Brent touching $109.80 before pulling back.
Pipeline Shutdown Adds Pressure
Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline was knocked offline after Houthi strikes last week damaged pumping stations. The 750-mile pipeline can carry up to 7 million barrels per day from eastern Saudi Arabia to the Red Sea port of Yanbu.
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia's oil problem just multiplied.
What looked like a single Houthi hit on the East-West pipeline is now looking like a coordinated hammering of the whole system.
Fresh satellite imagery shows Pump Station 9 badly damaged, with Pump Station 8 possibly hit too, both…
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) September 15, 2026
Saudi Arabia is working to restore partial operations within days. However, full repairs to the damaged stations could take six to eight weeks, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The pipeline is a key route that allows Saudi crude exports to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. Its shutdown removes one of the main buffers against supply disruptions in the region.
Saudi crude loadings from Yanbu had risen above 4 million barrels per day between April and June. That figure dropped to just 1.1 million barrels per day in August as Houthi attacks increased risks to Red Sea shipping, according to LSEG data.
Rystad Energy analyst Janiv Shah estimates Saudi Arabia has around two to six days of crude stored at Yanbu. Drawing on reserves stored in Egypt could extend that window by at least another week.
Houthis Strengthen Position at Key Chokepoint
Iran-aligned Houthi militants seized Perim Island in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait over the weekend after capturing the nearby port of Mokha. The moves give the group greater ability to disrupt oil flows through the Red Sea corridor.
Analysts at ING said oil prices remain firmly supported and that floor is unlikely to give way until markets get clearer visibility on Saudi supply following the pipeline shutdown.
Talks between Iran and Gulf states on reopening the Strait of Hormuz have been delayed. Oman announced over the weekend that a planned Monday meeting had been postponed. No new date was given.
The Strait of Hormuz previously supplied about one-fifth of the world’s oil before the U.S.-Iran war began in late February. Flows have remained well below those levels since the strait was effectively shut following the start of the conflict.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia analyst Vivek Dhar said factors that cushioned the market are weakening. China’s crude imports are edging higher, and additional non-OPEC supply outside the Middle East is not expected until 2027.
Dhar said CBA’s lower estimate, that global inventories cover only five to eleven weeks of supply, is becoming increasingly likely.
U.S. President Donald Trump again claimed on Monday that Iran was seeking a peace deal. Tehran denied this, saying it would not engage in talks until its conditions were met.
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