After this weekend’s drone attack on Saudi oil plants, crude prices jump 12 percent.
Brent crude traded at $70.98 per barrel on oil futures markets Sunday, an 18 percent surge from Friday’s close of $60.15, before falling back to a 12 percent jump. U.S. benchmark West Texas intermediate crude opened at $61.27 per barrel, a 12 percent climb.
Trump took to Twitter to announce that he will release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve but did not say how much.
Pavel Molchanov, an oil analyst with Raymond James predicts a spike in oil prices in the next few days but cannot say exactly how high. How quickly the Saudis repair the damages sustained from the attack will ultimately determine just how high prices will spike. Any spike in oil prices will affect an already declining global economy.
Molchanov also stated the US has more than enough oil in inventory to prevent fuel shortages and we would not experience the gas lines people faced during the 70s.
In a follow-up tweet, it appears Trump has threatened Iran.
