Saudi oil refinery attacks: petrol prices may rise by 5p

Petrol prices are expected jump at least five pence per gallon in the wake of surprise missile attacks on crucial Saudi oil refineries, with further hikes in the pipeline if emergency engineering works cannot contain the threat to global energy supplies.

Markets are braced for a spike in the cost of crude tomorrow, and analysts expect the costs of the crisis to be felt at the pumps almost immediately.

Ashley Kelty, a veteran oil and gas analyst, said he would expect petrol prices to jump “at least 5p per gallon in the coming days and further hikes to come as news comes out on the longer term impact of the Saudi outage”.

Two crucial facilities run by state-owned Saudi Aramco were shut down by missiles launched from drones on Saturday. The loss of the Khurais oil field and nearby Abqaiq oil processing facility, which is one of the largest in the world, has cut the Kingdom’s production capacity by half.

The strikes took out about 5.7 million barrels of oil per day of output, equal to around 5pc of global supply. Figures released in August suggested Saudi Arabia’s total production stood at just under 10 million barrels per day.

Early local reports warned Saudi Arabia was expecting it to be “weeks not days” until it can return to full oil capacity. Officials are due to provide an update tomorrow.