SAUDI ARABIA BELIEVES OIL COULD RISE ABOVE $180 IF DISRUPTIONS PERSIST: REPORT

Fri 20 March 2026:

Officials in Saudi Arabia believe that the price of oil could rise to $180 per barrel if disruptions persist in the Strait of Hormuz through the end of April, The Wall Street Journal has reported, citing multiple unnamed sources.

Oil prices have been fluctuating wildly since the war began on 28 February, with Brent crude briefly approaching $119 per barrel on Thursday before retreating.

Umer Karim, an expert in Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy at the King Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh, told Al Jazeera that he believes at least $150 a barrel is within the realm of possibility, depending on the progress of the war.

“If these Red Sea terminals are attacked – if there is any kind of obstruction within the Red Sea – I think anything above $150 is quite possible,” Karim told Al Jazeera. “Right now, this is the only viable connection between Europe and Asia,” Karim said.

Saudi Arabia has been able to keep exporting oil because it has facilities at the port of Yanbu on the Red Sea, located more than 1,000km (620 miles) from the Gulf.

Analysts fear, however, that the port could become a target as energy facilities across the Gulf have been attacked by both Iran and Israel.

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Consumers bear brunt of oil, gas prices as Washington maintains damage is temporary

By Dmitry Medvedenko, reporting from Doha, Qatar

We’ve had major implications from this conflict already, with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz being called the single most disruptive event in the history of the oil and gas industry by the International Energy Agency.

Now, consumers worldwide have noticed fuel prices going up. They’re the ones footing the bill. US consumers have been complaining, saying that their gasoline is going through the roof.

However, JD Vance and Washington have been downplaying those comments, saying it’s just a short-term blip.

The implication here being that as soon as the war is over, you know, three to four weeks, or whatever the estimate of Washington is now, and the Strait of Hormuz has reopened, everything is back to normal.

We now have evidence of the contrary, because QatarEnergy has said LNG (liquefied natural gas) exports will be affected for the next three to five years. It is compelled, as it says, to declare force majeure on its supplies to Belgium, Italy, China and South Korea.

That’s one implication.

Another one is that the gas-to-liquids plant is being affected, and that means condensate exports down 24 percent, LPG (liquefied petroleum gas). So that’s cooking gas affected 13 percent.

All of this is going to create a massive increase in prices. The biggest consumer of LPG using cooking gas is Indian households. Hundreds of millions of Indian households use LPG as their primary source of energy for cooking.

So all of this is on the consumer, and perhaps providing even more pressure in Washington to perhaps end this conflict before even more damage is done.

Ras Laffan damage has ‘massive’ implications for LNG prices: Expert

Anne-Sophie Corbeau at the Centre on Global Energy Policy in Paris told Al Jazeera that Ras Laffan – the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant in Qatar – is likely facing a long repair timeline after it was attacked by Iran this week.

“We don’t yet know the impact of the damage,” Corbeau said, adding that “based on previous incidents at other LNG facilities, it will likely take months to repair”.

“The last major incident at an LNG facility was Freeport LNG [in Texas] in 2022: the facility was down for eight months. Before that, Snohvit in Norway was down for 1.5 years after a fire in September 2020,” she said.

“In a worst-case scenario, Ras Laffan may not restart in 2026, which means that LNG supply in 2026 would be roughly equivalent to where we were in 2021,” she said.

“This could be a five-year setback; the implications for the world and for gas prices are massive,” she said.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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