Liam Denning, Columnist

Saudi Oil Attack Is Nothing Like the Last One

The kingdom isn’t rushing to soothe oil prices this time. It’s a risky bet on U.S. shale producers ignoring higher prices.

March 8, 2021 at 4:10 PM UTC

By Liam Denning

Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy. A former banker, he edited the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column and wrote the Financial Times’s Lex column.

Saudi Aramco's Ras Tanura oil refinery and terminal in Ras Tanura.
Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg

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Brent crude is, once again, scraping $70 in the aftermath of a missile attack on critical Saudi Arabian oil facilities. Yet in every other respect, this Monday is nothing like the last time this happened in September 2019.

There are obvious physical differences. The Ras Tanura export facility targeted over the weekend is the biggest of its kind in the world, as is the Abqaiq processing facility targeted two years ago. Yet Abqaiq is more critical to the actual production of Saudi oil; and it suffered real damage, whereas Ras Tanura’s operations appear unaffected.