Crude edged up as new hostilities involving Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis put potential supply snags back on the radar even as output trends improve. By Tuesday morning, 5.8 million barrels had been pumped through the East-West Pipeline, according to Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman. In a separate statement Tuesday, Saudi Arabia's aviation regulator reportedly noted that two attacks struck the airports in Jazan and Najran within the country, as tensions with the Houthis escalated. Traders are also watching Iran's move to increase attacks on tankers transiting through the Strait of Hormuz, which threatens a fragile recovery in oil exports through the key waterway.
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By 8:22 a.m. ET, Brent for December delivery was up 83 cents at $101.41 a barrel, and November WTI was higher by 38 cents at $89.82. Later price boards showed ICE Brent Crude (Dec′26) at 101.98, up 1.40 or 1.39% at 4:18 PM BST, and WTI Crude (Nov′26) at 89.85, up 0.41 or 0.46% at 11:18 AM EDT.
This is the tug-of-war in one headline: better physical supply colliding with persistent geopolitical risk. As Naeem Aslam, chief investment officer at Zaye Capital Markets, put it, oil remains "caught between improving physical supply and persistent geopolitical risk." And XS.com senior market analyst Samer Hasn warned that "The sustained ability of the Houthis in Yemen to target oil facilities hundreds of kilometers from the border keeps the risks of a renewed large-scale crude supply disruption present and high, and these risks could worsen if the Houthis feel the need to apply more pressure as a result of losing more territory." For everyday investors, that means prices may keep reacting to two things at once: tangible supply markers like pipeline throughput and any escalation headlines out of the region.
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