Oil prices fall after Israel vows not to target energy infrastructure; Iran also scales back attacks

Oil prices are falling today after Israel said it would stop attacking energy infrastructure. The number of Iranian attacks on energy infrastructure has also fallen compared with the start of this week, helping to ease the rise in oil prices, which had previously been trading near four-year highs, Bloomberg reported.

North Sea Brent crude was down 1.26 percent at USD 107.34 per barrel at around 09:30 CET. US light crude WTI was down 1.26 percent at USD 94.35 per barrel at the same time.

A fire broke out again this morning at Kuwait’s Mina al-Ahmadi refinery following a drone attack. The national oil company announced on Thursday that a drone attack had caused a fire in one of the operating units at the Mina al-Ahmadi refinery. It later said the drone had also caused a small fire at its other major refinery, Mina Abdullah.

Israel announced it would no longer attack energy infrastructure after a strike on an Iranian gas field prompted retaliatory attacks across the Middle East and drew criticism from US President Donald Trump, Bloomberg reported.

“Israel acted alone,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a press conference, although Israeli officials had earlier said they had informed the United States about the attack.

Netanyahu also said Israeli forces would support the US effort to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and that the war would end sooner than people think. His remarks helped calm markets after already-high energy prices surged again. Brent crude rose as high as USD 120 per barrel on Thursday.

Israel and the US launched an attack on Iran on the last day of February. Iran has retaliated by attacking Israel and Arab states in the region that host US military bases. Traffic through the strategically important Strait of Hormuz has almost ground to a halt as a result of the war. Under normal conditions, about a fifth of global oil and natural gas supplies pass through the strait.

Oil prices in dollars per barrel (about 159 litres)