Oil and trouble in the Gulf

Gulf producers learn that regional instability no longer guarantees high oil prices

The September attacks on Saudi Aramco’s Abqaiq processing plant and Khurais oil field—which took out about half the kingdom’s production—was the most serious in a string of destabilising developments in the Middle East during the summer and early autumn: the seizure of oil tankers; attacks on tankers; the sacking of the Saudi oil minister; riots in Iraq and Egypt; an acceleration of Iranian uranium enrichment; the Turkish invasion of northern Syria.  Under normal circumstances, any one of these events could have triggered a prolonged spike in oil prices. After the Abqaiq/Khurais attacks, the price rose by about 20pc, but not for long. The average Brent spot price for that week was just over