Morning Highlights: Houthis Claim Strikes on Shaybah Oilfield and Aramco’s Yanbu Site as Brent Reaches a Five-Month High

Tuesday, October 20, 2026 | 6:45 AM ET

Brent (December) $111.41 | WTI (November, expiring) $109.60

Brent +$1.86 (+1.7%), after touching $111.75, the highest since May. November WTI is up as much as $5.94 (+5.7%), on a move that looks like a short squeeze into expiry. Kpler says at least 18 vessels were reportedly attacked over the past two weeks. Saudi authorities have not confirmed the Houthi claims, and Reuters could not verify them.

Bottom Line

The Houthis said Monday they launched several attacks on Saudi energy, airport and military targets: an Aramco site in Yanbu, the Shaybah oilfield, Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport and Abha airport. Unlike last week’s strike on an office tower in Dhahran, Yanbu and Shaybah are producing and export sites, so confirmation of damage at either would matter. None has been reported. Separately, a Houthi attack on a training camp for government security forces in Yemen’s Shabwa province killed 58 people and injured more than 200. ING analysts said the market is pricing a significant risk premium given the volatility, and that if flows continue uninhibited it would erode slowly, though there are “no signs of this yet.”

WTI is the bigger mover, and the trading behind it is thin. November WTI rose as much as $5.94, mostly off the Nov/Dec wti spread, which points to a short squeeze going into expiry. Volume in the November contract was 1,143 contracts at 6:30 ET, with 1,122 of them in the spread. The move started into Monday’s close and continued this morning. Ouch.

The IRGC Navy said two oil tankers struck mines along the southern route of Hormuz and caught fire, per Tasnim via Bloomberg. It named no vessels and gave no dates, cargoes, casualties or damage, and UKMTO last reported an incident in Hormuz on October 14, so the claim is unverified. The IRGC made similar mine-strike claims on October 11 and 12, covering three tankers, and has described the southern route as unauthorized. Kpler’s count of at least 18 vessels attacked over two weeks is the independent figure to weigh against it.

US and physical items are secondary today. US Strategic Petroleum Reserve stocks fell to 282.7 million barrels last week, the lowest since October 1982, per the Department of Energy, as part of a US agreement to release 172 million barrels. A preliminary Reuters poll expected crude and product stocks to have fallen last week. QatarEnergy is again offering Al-Shaheen crude in roughly 500,000 barrel parcels, FOB for November 18 to 29 loading or by ship-to-ship transfer at Fujairah or Sohar for December 1 to 10, with offers due at noon Doha time on October 21. Results of its earlier November FOB offer weren’t immediately clear.