Oil brent WTI: U.S. inventories, UAE attack
A pump jack is seen in Stanton, Texas, on March 17, 2026.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images
Oil prices fell on Wednesday as U.S. crude stocks helped offset rising geopolitical risk premiums despite escalating attacks on the United Arab Emirates’ energy infrastructure.
The prices of the international benchmark Brent dropped by 1.17 percent to $102.19 per barrel. U.S. oil prices fell 1.81% to $94.56 per barrel as of 10:44 PM ET.
U.S. crude inventories rose by 6.56 million barrels in the week ended March 13, well above the 380,000 additional barrels expected in 2019, market sources told Reuters, citing American Petroleum Institute data. Reuters poll for the same period.
The pullback in prices comes even as fresh strikes in the UAE raise fears of prolonged supply disruptions amid the Iran conflict. Recent incidents include a drone attack on the world’s largest ultra-sour gas facility, a fire in the Fujairah Oil Industrial Zone, and damage to a tanker near the Strait of Hormuz.
The UAE reopened its airspace on Tuesday following a temporary closure triggered by drone attacks. Meanwhile, operations at the Shah gas field were suspended following a separate drone strike that caused a fire, and no injuries were reported, officials said.
The Shah field, located approximately 180 miles southwest of Abu Dhabi, is owned by Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. and operated by Occidental Petroleum. It has a capacity of more than 1.28 billion standard cubic feet of gas per day and 4.2 million tons of sulfur per year.
Oil prices have also come under some pressure as the United States uses bunker-busting bombs to destroy Iranian missile sites near the Strait of Hormuz, said Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates.
“This provides some optimism that we are approaching the day when tankers can resume transiting safely through the waterway,” he told CNBC.
Citi said oil markets are likely to remain under pressure in the near term. In the baseline scenario, disruptions to flows in the Strait of Hormuz over the next four to six weeks could wipe as much as 11 million to 16 million barrels of oil per day off the market, pushing Brent crude to around $110 to $120 per barrel.
In a more severe scenario, Citi said a prolonged outage or broader attack on energy infrastructure could push prices to an average of $130 in the second and third quarters, with increases that could reach $150 in Brent or even as high as $200 including refined products.
