Saudi Red Sea shipments suspended

LONDON (Reuters) – Brent crude prices rose on Thursday after Saudi Arabia suspended its oil shipments through a key Red Sea strait in response to an attack on two of its tankers and US data showed US inventories fell to a 3-1 / 2 year low.

Brent crude futures had risen 55 cents to $ 74.48 a barrel by 0832 GMT, hitting a 10-day high and extending their rally into a third day.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were 4 cents lower at $ 69.26 barrel after two days of gains.

Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, said on Thursday that it was "only one halting". Houthi movement.

Saudi Arabia has a major export terminal in Ras Tanura – also in the country's largest refinery – on its eastern coast. It exports the most of its crude on tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

From there, many ships have passed through Bab al-Mandeb to get to the Suez Canal towards Europe and the SUMED pipeline in Egypt.

An estimated 4.8 million barrels per day of crude oil and refined petroleum products flowed through this waterway in 2016 towards Europe, the United States and Asia, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

Saudi Arabia also has another option in the Petroline, also known as the East-West Pipeline, which mainly transports crude oil from fields clustered in the east to the Red Sea port of Yanbu for export to Europe and North America.

The 5 million barrels per day Petroline could transport around 60 percent of total Saudi oil exports.

Prices were also supported by U.S. crude oil inventories as they dropped and dropped at the Cushing hub dropped.

Crude inventories fell 6.1 million barrels in the week to July 20, compared with analyst expectations for a decrease of 2.3 million barrels, the EIA said on Wednesday.

At 404.9 million barrels, inventories, not including the nation's emergency petroleum reserve, were at their lowest level since February 2015.

The threat of a transatlantic trade war eased after US President Donald Trump agreed on Wednesday to refrain from imposing for tariffs on the European Union.