Burst of Attacks in Gulf Heightens Fears Over Fragile Energy Trade

At least 11 tankers have been attacked in and around the Strait of Hormuz since last Monday, including four in the last two days, a stark reminder that the recent increase in exports from the volatile region rests on a series of fragile workarounds.The drone and missile strikes have continued as the Middle East risks plunging deeper into war, with the Saudi-backed government of Yemen on Sunday announcing a major military campaign against the Iran-backed Houthi militia.The announcement followed Houthi strikes on critical oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia.The attacks have underscored the unsettling reality for Gulf oil exporters.

U.S.forces have provided protection for ships seeking to transport oil through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran asserted control over after the United States and Israel attacked it more than seven months ago.

But heightened risks continue to shadow the global energy trade.“Few expected a near closure of the world’s most critical energy artery to last so long, or its impact to spread so widely,” Amin Nasser, chief executive of Saudi Aramco, the national oil company, said in a speech to the Energy Intelligence Forum in London on Monday.He added, “This is one of the worst crises of my career, and my career is long.”The price of Brent crude oil, the global benchmark, was little changed on Monday, hovering around $102 a barrel.Analysts said the big run-up in oil prices since the war had been held in check in recent weeks by the increase in oil exports from the Persian Gulf, which have reached higher levels than at any point since the start of the war.And on Friday, the Group of 7 nations, which includes Britain, France and Japan, said they had agreed to release emergency stocks of diesel and crude over the next four months.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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