While much of the recent talk regarding rising oil prices around the world has centered on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Saudi Arabia has stepped into the conversation. The world’s largest oil exporter’s production efforts were impacted when Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels attacked a petroleum distribution center in Jeddah and disrupted production at a petrochemicals complex in Yanbu. While the overall extent of damage at the installations remained unclear, the Saudi Energy Ministry acknowledged a temporary drop in oil output at the Yanbu site.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia declares that it will not incur any responsibility for any shortage in oil supplies to global markets in light of the attacks on its oil facilities from the Iranian-backed terrorist Houthi militias,” the state-run Saudi Press Agency quoted the Saudi Foreign Ministry as saying Monday. “The Kingdom stresses the importance of the international community realizing the gravity of Iran’s continued behavior of equipping the terrorist Houthi militias…resulting in serious consequences for upstream and downstream sectors affecting the Kingdom’s production capability…undermining without a doubt, the security and sustainability of energy supplies to global markets.”
Saudi Arabia’s comments came as prices for the international oil benchmark Brent crude hovered over $112 per barrel in trading Monday. That’s up more than 4% from the preceding session. While it is still below a peak of nearly $140 hit earlier this month, it is still some $15 per barrel more than before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The comments also came as some in the European Union, like the foreign ministers of Lithuania and Ireland, have pushed the bloc to step up its sanctions on Russian oil. The video above includes clips from EU leaders discussing the topic.
“Looking at the extent of the destruction in Ukraine right now, it’s very hard to make the case that we shouldn’t be moving in on the energy sector, particularly oil and coal,” Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said before a meeting of the foreign ministers.
“I think it is unavoidable to start talking about the energy sector, and we definitely can talk about about oil, because it is the biggest revenue to Russian budget,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis added.
The United States and Great Britain have already sanctioned Russian oil. Following their lead would be more difficult for EU nations, because they are significantly more reliant on Russian oil. Other EU leaders urged caution Monday.
“We have to deleverage that dependency,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said. “But at the same time, we have to make sure that energy dependency and the absolute guarantee that you will have enough gas and oil in your system is also still of crucial importance for the Netherlands, for Germany, for France and also for countries Eastern Europe.”
