Oil prices gain

LONDON. - Oil prices traded broadly unchanged yesterday after an announcement that Saudi Arabia would suspend some oil shipping in the Red Sea had initially sent prices higher.

Brent futures had risen 19 cents to $74.12 a barrel by 1305 GMT, extending their rally into a third day but slipping from a 10-day high in earlier trading.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 2 cents at $69,28, hovering around Wednesday’s closing level. Earlier in the day, it looked like WTI was set for a third consecutive day of rising prices.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, said on Thursday that it was “temporarily halting” oil shipments through the Red Sea shipping lane of Bab al-Mandeb after an attack by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement.

Saudi Arabia has a major export terminal in Ras Tanura - also home to the country’s largest refinery - on its eastern coast. The kingdom exports most of its crude on tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

The path through Bab al-Mandeb links Saudi Arabia’s eastern trade partners and Ras Tanura with the Red Sea port of Yanbu, the Suez Canal and the SUMED pipeline.

An estimated 4,8 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil and refined petroleum products flowed through this waterway in 2016 towards Europe, the United States and Asia, according to the US Energy Information Administration.