Brent crude futures climbed above $70 a barrel on Monday for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began, while US crude touched its highest in more than two years, following failed attacks on Saudi Arabian facilities.
Brent crude futures for May hit $71.38 a barrel in early Asian trade, the highest since Jan. 8, 2020, and were at $70.56 a barrel by 0730 GMT, up $1.20, or 1.7%, Reuters reported.
US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for April rose $1.08, or 1.6%, to $67.17. The front-month WTI price touched $67.98 a barrel earlier, the highest since October 2018, the news agency said.
Asian stocks also rose after the US Senate approved a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill while positive economic data from the United States and China bode well for a global economic rebound.
Yemen's Houthi militias failed on Sunday in targeting Saudi Arabia.
An official spokesman at the Saudi Ministry of Energy said that a petroleum tank farm at the Ras Tanura Port in the Eastern Region, one of the largest oil shipping ports in the world, was attacked by a drone, coming from the sea.
The spokesman added that another deliberate attempt was also made to attack Saudi Aramco’s facilities. Shrapnel from a ballistic missile fell near Aramco’s residential area in the city of Dhahran, where thousands of the company’s employees and their families from different nationalities live.
The spokesman said that both attempted attacks did not result in any injury or loss of life or property.
In his statement, the spokesman stressed that the Kingdom condemns and criminalizes such repeated acts of sabotage and hostility.
He called on the international community to unite against such attacks, which are aimed at civilian objects and vital installations.
Such acts of sabotage do not only target the Kingdom, but also the security and stability of energy supplies to the world, and therefore, the global economy. They affect the security of petroleum exports, freedom of world trade, and maritime traffic, the spokesman added.
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