Oil soars again on Mideast tension

Oil prices shot higher Thursday on fresh supply concerns in the Middle East, while stocks climbed on the US Federal Reserve's decision to cut interest rates.

Brent oil jumped nearly over 1.5 per cent as traders seized on resurfacing tensions in the crude-rich Middle East.

The market had surged at the start of the week after drone attacks at Saudi oil facilities on Saturday.

Traders remain on red alert for further developments, including the US and Saudi response, with both putting the blame at Iran's door.

"There's been a fairly sharp move higher in oil after a couple of incidents occurred in a short space of time that threaten to raise supply fears in the Middle East," XTB analyst David Cheetham told AFP.

"First off, reports that Saudi Arabia will look to import oil to offset its own reduced production suggests that the impact of last weekend's attacks is greater than the kingdom is letting on, with hopes of a swift return to the prior level of output looking hopeful to say the least.

"Not long after this, the Iranian foreign minister tweeted an inflammatory statement aimed at Saudi Arabia and together these have seen a flurry of buying in the oil price," Cheetham added.

The crisis has reignited worries about a military flare-up in the oil-rich Gulf region, which would send prices soaring and likely hit stock markets.

CMC Markets analyst David Madden added that Riyadh did not want to lose precious market share.

"Saudi Arabia does not want its business going elsewhere, so it plans to import energy, and presumably resell it as a way of maintaining its business links," Madden said.

"No doubt other energy producers see Saudi Arabia's difficulty as their opportunity."
"The US central bank cut interest rates by 0.25 per cent, meeting expectations, but the message from the update suggested that further rate cuts are not definitely in the pipeline."