Oil prices extend losses after Saudi Arabia boosts supply

Oil prices eased on Thursday, September 17, 2026, extending losses on reports of Saudi Arabia offering extra crude cargoes through Oman, which reduced fears of supply disruptions.

Brent crude futures dropped $1.88, or 1.8%, to $103.95 a barrel by 0632 GMT, while United States West Texas Intermediate futures were down $1.77, or 1.7%, at $100.66 a barrel. Both contracts fell about $3 on Wednesday.

Hiroyuki Kikukawa, the chief strategist of Nissan Securities Investment, a unit of Nissan Securities, said: “Concerns over supply tightness eased slightly following news that Saudi Arabia would ship cargo via Oman.

“Expectations of progress toward easing tensions in the Middle East ahead of the U.S.-China summit next week ⁠are also capping price gains.”

Saudi Arabia is offering more loadings of crude oil to Asian refiners via ship-to-ship transfers off Oman’s Sohar port, people familiar with the matter told Reuters, blunting some of the hit to global supply from attacks on Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline to the Red Sea.

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Oil prices rose to about four-month highs earlier this week after shipping industry sources said crude loadings at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea ‌export hub ⁠of Yanbu had been suspended and Riyadh had cancelled some cargo deliveries to European customers.

The suspension followed attacks on the East-West pipeline, which feeds the Saudi port of Yanbu.

Yanbu became Saudi Arabia’s main outlet for oil exports after Iran began blockading the Strait of Hormuz after the U.S. and Israel attacked the country at the end of February. Prior to the war, Hormuz was the conduit for one-fifth of the world’s oil ⁠supply.