Oil rises nearly 3% after Houthi missiles target Saudi Arabia's Yanbu hub, but diesel futures barely move

Oil prices rose on Thursday after Yemen's Houthis fired ballistic missiles at Saudi Arabia. The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said it intercepted six of them, aimed at the southern province of Taif and the Yanbu area on the Red Sea, Reuters reported. Both benchmarks were up about 5% earlier in the day. They gave back part of that after reports that U.S. and Iranian negotiators in New York were discussing a phased deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

At 12:29 p.m. EDT, Brent was up $2.04, or 2%, at $105.12 a barrel, and West Texas Intermediate was up $1.99, or 2.2%, at $94.15, according to Reuters. Prices firmed again after that. In early afternoon the OilPrice.com futures board had Brent at $105.90, up 2.76%, and WTI at $94.48, up 2.52%. Reuters said WTI was on track for its first gain in seven sessions after falling about 13% over the previous six.

Why Yanbu matters more than the headline suggests

Yanbu is not just another Saudi city. It is the Red Sea export hub at the end of Saudi Arabia's East-West Pipeline, the route the kingdom has been using to move crude without passing through Hormuz. Reuters reported on Thursday that Saudi Arabia is increasing the volume of crude pumped through that pipeline, but that tanker loadings at Yanbu have not yet resumed. A missile aimed at Yanbu is a missile aimed at the bypass.

That is why a failed attack still moved the price. Iran is blocking Hormuz, and the U.S.-Iran conflict is nearly seven months old. The oil market has been betting on two outcomes: a diplomatic reopening of the strait, and Yanbu taking up the slack until then. Thursday put both in doubt for a few hours. Reuters' sources said neither Washington nor Tehran wants to give up its leverage first.

Middle East barrels were the tightest part of the market. Murban, the Abu Dhabi grade, traded at $117.10, up 3.53%, on the same OilPrice.com board. That is about $11 above Brent.

The number behind the number: diesel did not follow

For a business that buys fuel, crude is not the price that matters. Diesel is, and on Thursday diesel went the other way from the headlines. Ultra-low-sulfur diesel futures, still quoted as heating oil, were at $4.808 a gallon, up only 0.66%. Gasoline futures rose 0.73%. Crude rose close to 3%.

Put the two prices in the same unit and the gap is plain. A barrel holds 42 gallons, so diesel at $4.808 a gallon works out to about $201.94 a barrel. Brent is $105.90. The difference, about $96 a barrel, is roughly the premium the market is paying for diesel over the crude it comes from, and it is almost as large as the price of the crude itself.

Diesel's price is being set by a shortage of the fuel itself: refinery attacks in Russia, Moscow's export ban and disrupted Middle East supply, all of which Reuters cited again on Thursday. The price of crude oil is a smaller part of it. That cuts both ways. A Houthi scare that lifts crude does not move the pump price much. A Hormuz deal that knocks crude down may not bring diesel down by as much as the headlines suggest. Our earlier reporting has the record retail diesel price and what it costs truckers, landscapers and farms.

Aramco keeps drilling

On the same day, SLB said Aramco had awarded it four integrated well construction contracts covering more than 450 wells over three years, with an option to extend each by up to two years, according to SLB's release. SLB did not disclose a contract value. The award shows Saudi Arabia is still committing to years of drilling even while it struggles to get its oil to buyers.

What traders are watching

• Whether tanker loadings resume at Yanbu, which would show whether the pipeline bypass works under fire.
• Any sign of movement in the U.S.-Iran talks in New York over Hormuz and the U.S. blockade.
• Whether the diesel premium over crude narrows. That is the part of the market that reaches freight rates and farm costs.

Follow crude on our oil chart and the rest of the board on markets. Earlier this week: oil fell for a fifth day as the Saudi pipeline restarted.

Sources: Reuters via The Globe and Mail; OilPrice.com futures quotes, early afternoon ET, Sept. 24, 2026; SLB press release. Prices are intraday and will change by the close. This is market information, not investment advice.