An official of the Petroleum Division said that the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) which determines the oil prices at the end of each month by taking in view the average price of the last three month oil purchases stated, "it is middle of the current month and we cannot predict oil prices for the next month at this stage." Analysts in Goldman Sachs warned that in a worst-case scenario, the disruption to Saudi's oil industry could last up to three months and prices could soar to over $75 a barrel.
Pakistan relies on oil imports from Saudi Arabia and UAE to meet 80 percent of its total requirement. Saudi Aramco stated in a press release on September 14 that its emergency crews contained fires at its plants in Abqaiq and Khurais, as a result of terrorist attacks with projectiles. These attacks resulted in production suspension of 5.7 million barrels of crude oil per day, it added.
After visiting the incident locations, Amin H Nasser, Saudi Aramco President and CEO said that work is under way to restore production and a progress update will be provided in around 48 hours. There are 266.2 billion barrels worth of oil in Saudi Arabia, and the Kingdom also produces 12 million barrels of oil on a daily basis, more than every country other than the United States.
The latest attack on the world's largest oil processing plant of Saudi Arabia is a dramatic escalation in the confrontation between Iran and Saudi Arabia, as US President Donald Trump assured full support to the Kingdom. "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!", Trump tweeted on Monday.
Although the Houthi rebels of Yemen claimed responsibility for the attack on Saturday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Iran for the attack. "Tehran is behind nearly 100 attacks on Saudi Arabia while Rouhani [Iranian President] and Zarif [Iranian Foreign Minister] pretend to engage in diplomacy. Amid all the calls for de-escalation, Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world's energy supply. There is no evidence the attacks came from Yemen", Secretary Pompeo tweeted.
Iran, however, denied its involvement in the latest attack on the Saudi oil facility. "Having failed at "max pressure", Secretary Pompeo's turning to "max deceit"...US & its clients are stuck in Yemen because of illusion that weapon superiority will lead to military victory. Blaming Iran won't end disaster. Accepting our April '15 proposal to end war & begin talks may", Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif stated in response to US Secretary of State's accusations.