Morning Highlights: Houthis Claim Strikes on East-West Pipeline Pumping Stations as Saudi, Turkish and Pakistani Officials Head to Tehran

Monday, October 26, 2026 | 7:00 AM ET

Brent (December) $114.52 | WTI (December) $100.83

Brent -$2.20 (-1.63%), WTI -$2.44 (-2.0%), after Friday’s settle nearly $3 higher. Brent finished last week up 6% and WTI up 2.3%, and Brent is still about 59% above its pre-war level. The Houthis said they struck pumping stations on Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline and Riyadh airport over the weekend, with no Saudi confirmation. The IEA’s Fatih Birol said he does not expect energy markets in 2027 to return to where they were before the war.

Bottom Line

Mediation is moving on two tracks, with nothing agreed on either. Qatari mediators traveled to Tehran on Sunday in coordination with the US, per an official briefed on the situation, and top officials from the Mecca Pact countries, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan, are due to meet Iran’s leaders in Tehran on Monday. Reuters describes that as their first high-level contact since the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia became a pressure point in the wider conflict. Iran told Pakistan’s army chief last week there would be no talks with Washington until its demands are met, and nothing this weekend suggests that has changed. The attacks continued meanwhile. The Houthis said they hit pumping stations on the East-West pipeline and Riyadh airport, and Saudi Arabia said Sunday it intercepted more missiles and drones but has not confirmed damage. Three of the pipeline’s pumping stations were hit in September, and it restarted on September 22, so damage there would matter if confirmed. Nothing in this morning’s reporting says flows have changed.

Birol, speaking at Singapore International Energy Week, said he sees no credible path to energy markets returning to pre-war conditions in 2027, and that oil is “flirting with $120 a barrel” with product prices well above that. He declined to forecast prices. He said the price may be affordable for some countries, Europe among them, but is hitting trade deficits in many others. His winter concern is refined products: diesel demand rises in parts of the West for heating just as several refineries go into maintenance.

Hormuz claims conflict. CENTCOM said Admiral Brad Cooper flew over the strait on Sunday and that US forces have helped Gulf partners export more than 1.5 billion barrels since summer. It said more than 3,000 commercial vessels have transited with its support over six months, over 95% of ships navigating the strait have passed safely, and primary transit routes are free of Iranian mines. Those are US military figures and have not been independently verified. The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, which has tracked maritime security incidents since 2017, says October is the worst month so far for attacks on commercial shipping in Hormuz and nearby waters. The IRGC said last week that three vessels struck mines west of the strait, which also contradicts CENTCOM, though that is an IRGC claim. A 95% safe-passage rate and a record incident count can both be true when traffic is this heavy.

European gas is the second pressure point heading into winter. The TTF front month rose 2.1% to as much as €95.73 per megawatt-hour early Monday, the highest since 2022, after a 7% weekly gain. EU storage was 74.62% full as of October 25, against a five-year average near 86%. Saxo’s Ole Hansen put inventories at about 845 TWh, roughly 100 TWh below a year ago, the equivalent of more than 80 large LNG carriers. Qatari LNG flows have slowed to a trickle for seven months, and Birol said Europe faces a tough winter because it cut Russian gas imports and now cannot count on Qatari and Emirati exports.

One longer-dated item: Saudi Arabia and Singapore said Aramco will store crude at Singapore’s Jurong Rock Caverns from the second half of 2027, with space for roughly 9 million barrels. Singapore’s Tan See Leng said an MOU is to be signed Monday and negotiations should conclude in a few months. Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said bringing supply closer to Asian markets would strengthen the flexibility of the supply network.