Oil prices rose on Tuesday as concerns over supply disruptions persisted after attacks on Saudi Arabian energy infrastructure left the kingdom's East-West pipeline offline and cast doubt on efforts to ease shipping risks in the Persian Gulf.
Brent crude futures rose $1.37, or 1.3%, to $107.05 a barrel at 0406 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures were up $1.53, or 1.51%, at $102.92 a barrel. Both benchmarks rose more than 1% in the previous session.
The Houthi forces in Yemen launched fresh attacks on Saudi Arabia on Monday, while Persian Gulf states postponed planned discussions with Iran, fueling concerns that the Middle East conflict could widen and disrupt global oil supplies.
The Houthis carried out a missile and drone attack on the Khamis Mushait military airbase in southern Saudi Arabia, hitting aircraft hangars, radar systems, runways and ammunition depots in retaliation for Saudi strikes in Yemen.
"Oil traders are treating every fresh attack or infrastructure hit as incremental supply risk, while staying highly sensitive to any sign that the East-West pipeline or Hormuz flows could normalise," said Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade.
Saudi Arabia could begin to exhaust oil available for export within days unless it restores operations on the East-West pipeline, potentially removing as much as 4% of global oil supply from the market, according to Saudi buyers and traders.
The world's biggest exporter has used the pipeline to reroute around 4 million barrels per day — around 4% of global supply — to the port of Yanbu on the Red Sea.
"Plenty of uncertainty remains over the extent of damage and the duration of the outage for the East-West pipeline in Saudi Arabia. Prices are likely to remain well supported until we get clarity," ING analysts said in a note.
Separately, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that Kyiv was ready to support a U.S. proposal for a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire on energy sites only if Washington could ensure Moscow was genuinely ready to end its war on Ukraine.