OIL SHOCKING NEWS
1. An Oil Shock
President Donald Trump said he would authorize releases of crude from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to keep the oil market well supplied after drone strikes knocked out over half of Saudi Arabia’s oil processing capacity at the weekend.
Trump also said he had “informed all appropriate agencies to expedite approvals of the oil pipelines currently in the permitting process in Texas and various other States.”
Oil prices spiked to their highest since May over the weekend as the attacks not only halted 6% of the world’s oil supply but also raised the specter of war between the U.S. and Iran, threatening further and wider disruptions to supply, inasmuch as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had earlier blamed Iran for the attacks. Iran said it was ready for “fully-fledged war”, while Trump said the U.S. was “locked and loaded” while waiting for Saudi Arabia to verify Washington’s suspicions.