Does the World Have Enough Oil to Cope With Saudi Attacks?
Emergency national stockpiles should be adequate to cover any shortfall from the Abqaiq attacks, if needed. A broader Gulf conflict would be a real test.
High-impact.
The world’s system of emergency oil stockpiles has been tested just a handful of times over the years. If needed it can probably cope with the aftermath of Saturday’s attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil processing plant at Abqaiq. Any further such disruptions, should conflict broaden in the Persian Gulf, might be less easy to accommodate.
Executives at Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company, have indicated that they could restore a “significant” volume of the shuttered daily production of 5.7 million barrels of crude in a matter of days. But it will take weeks to get back to full capacity, according to Bloomberg News.