Drone attacks on two critical production facilities in Saudi Arabia wiped out over 5% of the world’s oil supply in one go, eliminating the spare capacity of the entire globe.
The attacks, which targeted an oil processing facility at Abqaiq and the nearby Khurais oil field knocked out 5.7 million barrels of daily crude production, a whopping 50% of Saudi Arabia’s entire oil output.
“This incident effectively eliminates the world’s spare capacity,” said Sarah Cottle, global head of market insight at S&P Global Platts.
The attacks led at one point to oil prices spiking by 19%, the biggest leap since 1991.
Despite Houthi rebels fighting Saudi forces in Yemen taking credit, The Trump administration immediately indicated that it may be about to blame Iran.
“Saudi Arabia oil supply was attacked. There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, are locked and loaded depending on verification, but are waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed!” tweeted President Trump.
The irony of military action against Iran at this point is the fact that Trump just fired one oft he biggest cheerleaders for precisely that, John Bolton.
