Brent crude rises 1% after Houthi attack on Saudi capital

The move reverses a week of declines tied to pipeline repairs and Omani-mediated truce talks between Riyadh and the Houthis

Brent crude futures rose 1% after a Houthi attack on the Saudi capital, unwinding some of the declines that had built up over the past week. Oil is still up more than 70% this year.

Brent had settled 0.95% lower at $104.82 a barrel on Thursday, down $1.01, touching a one-week low as Saudi Arabia advanced repairs on its east-west pipeline. The drop came even as sirens sounded in Jeddah that same day over a reported projectile strike on the city, at a time when Riyadh was pursuing a two-week truce with the Houthis through Omani mediation.

The truce push has since come under pressure. The Houthis said on Saturday they struck an Aramco facility in Yanbu and vowed further attacks. Saudi Arabia had already cancelled all October crude shipments to European refiners, and exports through the Bab el-Mandeb strait have been running at under a third of this year's seven-day average since early August.

The rise counters the recent drift toward de-escalation that had pulled Brent down more than 3% from its highs on hopes for pipeline restoration and mediation. But with Saudi exports already reduced to roughly a third of normal through the Red Sea and the east-west pipeline still weeks from full capacity, the market may be pricing in the risk of further attacks rather than any fresh loss of supply, which leaves oil with little room to extend the rally on incremental escalation.