Geopolitics now impacting the oil market… What to watch for is this escalates
Chris Temple, Founder of the National Investor joins me for a look at the significance of the recent attacks on the Saudi oilfields over the weekend. This is causing the price of crude to spike however it very well could be very short lived. What’s important for investors is to look at an reaction from other countries especially the US. Also will this bounce have any impacts on future economic data?
The Houthis, the Iran-aligned rebel army that has been fighting a Saudi-led military coalition in neighbouring Yemen for the past four years, claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Houthis recently acquired much more powerful drone technology that has given them the power to strike targets up to 1,500km away, according to the UN. Abqaiq is within about 1,000km of Houthi-held territory. In the past months, there have been unconfirmed reports of attacks by Houthi drones on civilian airports in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
But Saturday’s strikes would represent a marked increase in sophistication compared to those earlier attacks. Western and Saudi governments believe Iran has been assisting the Houthis to acquire and use the advanced drones – a charge both Tehran and the Yemeni rebels deny.
However, the US says there is no evidence the attack originated in Yemen
and has squarely blamed it on Iran, seeing it as part of a pattern of threats to oil tankers and infrastructure in past months that it says Iran has carried out in response to sanctions on Iranian oil that are crippling the Islamic Republic’s economy.
The US government has produced satellite photos showing what officials said were at least 19 points of impact at the two Saudi energy facilities, including damage at the heart of the Abqaiq plant. Officials told US media the photos show impacts consistent with the attack coming from the direction of Iran or Iraq, rather than from Yemen to the south. Tehran says it had nothing to do with Saturday’s attack.
I’m afraid we’re getting a lot of ‘noise’ again. The fact is that the Houthis, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the USA all have reasons to twist the story the way they prefer.
Silver:
You think maybe Israel has a dog in the fight? I gave three links and direct quotations from written reports going back as far as 1982 where Israel advocating the destruction of Iran. Do you think maybe they meant exactly what they said?
The Houthis want the blockade of Yeman ended.
The Russians have been preparing to operate with $25 oil.
At $25 oil, U.S. shale and other producers go broke, Canadian oil sands couldnt survive. Saudi needs $80-$85 a barrel.
Iran is prepared to sell China oil cheap.
Who benefits from the attack?
Looks to me its the americans and the Saudis themselves that benefit.
The impact points in the four storage tanks are unusually symmetrical in the US government released Image 2 picture…just saying…
Bob Moriarty asks some pressingly good questions in this article he penned about the Saudi attack. So far at least, he’s got my attention: http://www.321gold.com/editorials/moriarty/moriarty091619.html
It’s difficult for me to believe that Iran is so juvenile and stupid to pull off an attack at this time and to this destructive level. JMO