Oil posted its biggest ever intraday jump to more than $71 a barrel after a strike on a Saudi Arabian oil facility removed about 5% of global supplies.
In an extraordinary start to trading on Monday, London’s Brent futures leapt almost $12 in the seconds after the open, the biggest advance in dollar terms since they were launched in 1988. Prices have since pulled back about half of that initial surge of almost 20%, but were still heading for the biggest advance in more than three years.
“We have never seen a supply disruption and price response like this in the oil market,” Saul Kavonic, an energy analyst at Credit Suisse Group AG, said via email. “Political risk premium are now back on the oil market agenda.”
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate futures were frozen for about two minutes after the scale of the move delayed the market open. They were 9% higher at 11:37 a.m. in Singapore.