'BREAKING: Saudi oil minister Abdulaziz bin Salman says drone attacks of Abqaiq shut down 5.7 million barrels of oil the kingdom’s crude production | Saudi press agency statement..'
- Javier Blas (
Source, September 14, 2019)
'..the fragility inherent in an energy system built on centralized supply and extended supply chains..''Saudi Arabia said the attack affected 5.7 million barrels a day of output, or roughly half their production .. this is all happening in the context of a change in U.S. engagement in the region: It is aggressive on some fronts, while pulling back on others. Indeed, this escalation could be interpreted as Iran’s response to Washington’s “maximum pressure” campaign – if Tehran can’t export, then neither should Saudi, may be the zero-sum thinking at play here. The chance of miscalculation and further escalation is very high.
..
..we have just been reminded of the fragility inherent in an energy system built on centralized supply and extended supply chains. For proponents of energy (and climate) security via electrification and energy efficiency, few things would bolster their arguments better than the spectacle of an oil market thrown into chaos by some drones taking shots at a single facility most people have never heard of.'
- Bloomberg,
Saudi Arabia Drone Attack Is a Strike at Oil’s Future, September 14, 2019
' “Abqaiq is the heart of the system and they just had a heart attack,” said Roger Diwan, a veteran OPEC watcher at consultant IHS Markit.'
- Bloomberg,
Saudi Oil Output Cut in Half After Drones Strike Aramco Site, September 14, 2019
'..An absence of information will lead traders to assume the worst.''Middle East geopolitics have come back with a vengeance to hit the oil market. What everybody feared has happened. An attack has penetrated the defenses of Saudi Arabia’s massive Abqaiq oil processing facility, the heart of the kingdom’s oil production and export infrastructure, causing an unknown amount of damage. Crude prices will react and emergency stockpiles will be tapped.
Fires at the plant were brought under control within hours, but the flow of crude from Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest exporter, will almost certainly be affected, although we don’t yet know by how much or for how long. Traders who have shrugged off tensions in the Middle East for months will respond to this attack when markets open on Monday.
The height of the price spike will depend on how much we know about the extent of the damage and how long it will take to repair. An absence of information will lead traders to assume the worst.'
- Bloomberg,
Attack on Saudi Oil Plant Is What Everyone Feared: Oil Strategy, September 14, 2019
Context'By 2030, Israel will end all diesel fuel, coal, and gasoline use..''..Australia could have 100 per cent renewable electricity by the early 2030s..''Half of Saudi Arabia's oil production has gone offline following a surprise drone strike.''The drone attacks .. struck at the core of the Saudi economy..'