Houthi strike claim on Saudi refinery lifts oil 2% as European gas touches €100 for first time since 2022

SentiSense · Published Oct 28, 2026, 3:52 AM ET · Updated Oct 28, 2026, 1:55 PM ET

Oil rose about 2% on Wednesday after Yemen's Houthis said they hit Saudi Arabia's Ras Tanura refinery, the kingdom's largest, a claim Saudi authorities had not confirmed. Brent rose $1.81 to $115.69 a barrel and WTI gained $2.52 to $102.42 by mid-morning in New York, while Europe's benchmark gas contract touched €100 per megawatt-hour for the first time since the 2022 energy crisis.

Oil prices climbed about 2% on Wednesday after Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement said it had struck Saudi Arabia's Ras Tanura refinery, the kingdom's largest refining complex, on Tuesday. Brent futures rose $1.81, or 1.6%, to $115.69 a barrel at 10:42 a.m. EDT, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate gained $2.52, or 2.5%, to $102.42. Saudi authorities had not immediately confirmed the strike on the 550,000-barrel-per-day facility, Reuters reported.

The attack claim landed on an already tight market. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a 1.9 million barrel crude draw against forecasts for a 15,000 barrel build, and the day's gain pushed Brent back into overbought territory for the fourth time in five days. Traders are also weighing the possibility of renewed U.S. strikes on Iran after the November 3 midterm elections, in a regional conflict now eight months old. Besides Ras Tanura, the Houthis targeted pumping stations on Saudi Arabia's East-West crude pipeline, the route that lets Saudi exports bypass the disrupted Strait of Hormuz.

European gas moved even more sharply. The Dutch TTF benchmark was up 1.2% at €97.35 per megawatt-hour earlier in the session, its highest in roughly four years, and later briefly touched €100 for the first time since the 2022 energy crisis, according to Reuters and Bloomberg. Disrupted Middle East LNG shipping has stretched transit times by roughly 10 to 14 days, and EU gas storage sits near 74.6% of capacity against an 86% five-year seasonal average, the lowest late-October level in records going back to 2009.

The next test is whether Saudi Arabia confirms damage at Ras Tanura. A lasting outage would tighten refined-product supply on top of the crude draw, while an unconfirmed claim could see some of the premium fade. For Europe, storage that is well below normal heading into winter leaves little cushion against further LNG disruption, which keeps energy costs for households and industry in focus.