Oil Gains as Report Points to Slow Return of Lost Saudi Output

Chemical storage tanks stand at the Bushehr Petrochemical Co. plant during construction work in the Pars Special Economic and Energy Zone in Asaluyeh, Iran, on Monday, July 8, 2019. Shipping in the Middle East is getting ever riskier, with a standoff between the U.K. navy and Iran just the latest in a line of incidents in the region over the past few months. Photographer: Ali Mohammadi/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

James Thornhill, Bloomberg News

Sep 22, 2019

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(Bloomberg) -- Oil rose sharply in early Monday trading in Asia following a report that full repairs to Saudi oil fields hit by a drone attack earlier this month may take many months.

Brent crude rose 1.1% after surging 6.7% last week, its largest weekly gain since January. Saudi Aramco on Saturday reaffirmed its commitment to bringing 5.7 million barrels a day of lost output back by the end of the month, however, a Wall Street Journal report Sunday quoted a Saudi official saying the situation is not “as rosy as you might think.”

Tensions remain high in the region, with the U.S. on Friday announcing sanctions against Iran’s central bank in retaliation for the attack that crippled Saudi Arabian oil production.

To contact the reporter on this story: James Thornhill in Sydney at jthornhill3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ramsey Al-Rikabi at ralrikabi@bloomberg.net, Keith Gosman

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