Oil extended gains above $110 a barrel on Thursday after a Houthi drone attack near Saudi Aramco's Shaybah oilfield heightened concerns over supply disruptions as Yemen's rebels stepped up strikes on the kingdom's energy infrastructure.
Brent crude rose 1.7 per cent, or $1.81, to $110.63 a barrel as of 7.36am UAE time. West Texas Intermediate gained 1.4 per cent, or $1.37, to $98.52.
Two people were killed and two injured on Wednesday when debris from a drone intercepted by Saudi air defences fell near a processing plant at Shaybah, one of the kingdom's largest oilfields.
The drone targeted the plant, but its debris struck a contractor's vehicle outside and caused a fire, the Saudi Energy Ministry said. Operations were unaffected.
Shaybah, deep in the Empty Quarter near the UAE border, produces about one million barrels of crude a day.
The strike came hours before another attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam killed one person and injured eight, according to Saudi Arabia's civil aviation authority. The Houthis have not commented on the airport attack.
The latest strikes follow an attack on Riyadh's main international airport earlier this month, the deadliest on the kingdom in more than a decade.
Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline, a critical alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, has also come under attack. Crude flows were reportedly halted on October 5 after a Houthi strike damaged a pumping station east of Riyadh.
The pipeline, which has a capacity of about seven million barrels a day, carries crude from the kingdom's eastern oilfields to Red Sea export terminals, allowing shipments to bypass the Strait of Hormuz.
Washington has ordered non-emergency government employees and their families to leave Saudi Arabia, citing Houthi attacks on civilian airports and critical infrastructure.
The widening campaign is adding to the geopolitical risk premium in oil prices as attacks threaten Saudi production facilities and alternative export routes already strained by the Iran war.
