Brent Ticks Up to $104.34 as Saudi Arabia and the Houthis Trade Fresh Cross-Border Attacks

Brent crude edged up about 33-48 cents to roughly $104.33-$104.34 a barrel on Sep 18 (WTI slipped to $101.66) after Saudi Arabia and Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi forces exchanged fresh attacks across their shared border, a new escalation front that added to concerns the conflict could further disrupt energy supply already strained by the shut East-West pipeline and suspended Yanbu loadings. It capped a week in which Houthi forces struck Saudi oil and other infrastructure, sparked fires at several facilities, wounded dozens and forced roughly 125,000 Yemenis from their homes, compounding the separate mid-September pipeline attack blamed on Iran-backed militias in Iraq. US crude has still advanced more than 1% for the week even as Brent held roughly flat, reflecting how the market continues to weigh Saudi Arabia's signaled partial pipeline restart against the widening set of threats to Gulf energy infrastructure.