The quantity of oil ferried through the strait is double that of all U.S. oil production. ADADKilduff cautioned, however, that the risks to oil production in the Middle East are real and have probably not been adequately reflected in the world’s oil price. Friday’s surge was nowhere near as dramatic as the 15 percent increase in oil prices that happened over a weekend in September after a drone attack on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia. Oil tankers and installations could be prime targets for a retaliatory attack, Jeffrey Halley, an Asia-Pacific analyst with OANDA, wrote in a commentary Friday. Those concerns were amplified by the attacks on oil tankers and strikes on Saudi oil fields in 2019.

Source: Washington Post January 03, 2020 12:50 UTC