By Colleen Howe
BEIJING, Sept 14 (Reuters) – Oil prices rose more than $3 a barrel at the market open on Monday, after new strikes on Saudi Arabia and on ships in the Gulf on Sunday.
Brent crude futures rose $3.62, or 3.46%, to $108.23 per barrel as of 2214 GMT (Sunday). WTI futures rose $3.15, or 3.15%, to $103.20 per barrel.
Saudi Arabian state media on Sunday released video footage of damage to homes and a mosque from what it said was a Houthi attack on the country’s southern Jazan province. The Houthis said they had also struck a Saudi military base in a neighbouring province.
A vessel in the Strait of Hormuz was struck by a projectile, causing a fire and forcing the crew to be evacuated, the British maritime security agency UKMTO said on Sunday.
Iran said one person was killed and four crew wounded aboard an Iranian commercial vessel struck off its coast.
Oil prices had been expected to rise on Monday amid growing concerns about risks to supply from Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, whose East-West oil pipeline was shut last week by a drone strike that originated in Iraq.
“Looking ahead, unless this week’s talks in Oman produce something operational — or the East-West pipeline is brought back online quickly — the risk is that crude oil continues to extend its gains toward the $119.48 high of early March,” IG market analyst Tony Sycamore said in a note on Sunday.
Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said on X later on Sunday, however, that a scheduled Monday meeting in Oman between Gulf countries and Iran to discuss the Strait of Hormuz had been postponed.
(Reporting by Colleen Howe; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Edmund Klamann)
