Energy security

Does the World Have Enough Oil to Cope With Saudi Attacks?

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.

If production can’t be brought back quickly enough, the world can draw on crude and refined products stashed away in government-controlled stockpiles for just such an emergency. President Donald Trump has authorized the release of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and the International Energy Agency — which coordinates stockpiles — is standing by.