Oil prices fall as Saudi shipments via Oman ease supply fears

Oil prices fell on Thursday, extending losses from the previous session, as Saudi Arabia arranged additional crude shipments through Oman to ease immediate supply fears following attacks on its East-West pipeline. Brent crude futures dropped to $104.59 per barrel, down 1.2%, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures fell to $101.29 per barrel, a decline of 1.1%. Both contracts had fallen by about $3 per barrel on Wednesday. The decline was driven by reports that Saudi Arabia is offering extra crude cargoes to Asian refiners via ship-to-ship transfers off Oman's Sohar port. This move is intended to partly offset the disruption to exports caused by drone attacks that damaged two pumping stations on the East-West pipeline last week. The pipeline normally supplies crude to Yanbu, Saudi Arabia's main Red Sea export hub. Analysts noted that the additional shipments through the Strait of Hormuz are only partially compensating for the lost export volume from Yanbu. "The pickup in flows through the Strait of Hormuz is only partly offsetting lost export barrels," Saxo Bank analysts said.