Oil News: WTI and Brent Pull Back but Trump Keeps the Supply Risk Trade Alive
Key Points:
- WTI and Brent pull back on Friday, but two impaired shipping routes keep the crude oil supply trade alive.
- Trump’s weekend response to tanker attacks remains the oil market’s biggest upside-risk catalyst.
- Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea export route is now under pressure alongside the restricted Strait of Hormuz
Crude oil is pulling back Friday after the most violent weekly rally since the war started, but the supply picture that drove it has not changed. Iran is still restricting Hormuz. The Houthis attacked Saudi tankers near Bab el-Mandeb this week and the kingdom’s backup route through the Red Sea is now under the same kind of pressure as the Gulf. Two chokepoints are impaired at the same time, Saudi exports were already falling before the blockade and the fuel markets are still running at record margins underneath the crude trade. President Trump promised major military punishment for Iran and the Houthis after the tanker attacks and said Tehran would be held responsible for future Houthi actions against shipping. That makes the weekend the most dangerous stretch for crude positioning since the conflict began.