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Morning Edition · Friday, November 13, 2026Published at 12:14 AM EST · New York
Oil Heads for a Second Weekly Loss as Trump Says No Iran Deal Is Needed and US Crude Stocks Rise
Brent traded near $95.41 early Friday and was down about 2.4% for the week despite a 3.3% jump on Thursday, which followed reports of attacks on Saudi Arabia.
Brent crude futures were nearly unchanged at about $95.41 a barrel in early Friday trading, and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell 0.25% to $88.52, according to Reuters reporting carried by Investing.com and Business Today. Brent was headed for a 2.4% weekly loss after a 16% fall the week before. WTI was headed for a 2.5% loss after a 13% decline.
The weekly fall hides a sharp rise on Thursday. Brent rose 3.3% on November 12 after claims of attacks on Saudi Arabia, The Nation Thailand reported. On the same day at the United Nations Security Council, Pakistan called for the "immediate and unconditional" end of Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, and the council renewed sanctions related to Yemen, Dawn reported. Pakistan has a defense relationship with Riyadh, so its intervention reflects how close Islamabad stands to the Saudi side.
Two forces held prices down. President Trump said a deal with Iran was not needed to end the conflict and that the oil market was "priced to perfection." The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that crude inventories rose 4.7 million barrels to 414.4 million in the week to November 6, while analysts had expected a draw of 1.1 million.
OilPrice.com counts Brent about 20% below its late-October peak of $118. It says traders have repeatedly bet on a settlement and then reversed when fighting resumed. The decline has helped importers. India's Economic Times credited falling crude prices with part of the recent rise in Indian trading activity.
Part of a tracked trend
Middle East War Premium Returns to Oil
Renewed US-Iran conflict reinstates a geopolitical risk premium in crude that reverses the earlier de-escalation slide, feeding energy-driven inflation and redistributing income toward oil producers each time brinkmanship flares.
Veracity: Plausible
72/100- If true, who benefits
If the Houthi attacks are as damaging as the group claims, Riyadh gains diplomatic support at the United Nations and higher prices for its exported barrels, and Pakistan strengthens its defense relationship with the kingdom.
- The nuance
Pakistan's call and the unanimous renewal of Yemen sanctions to November 2027 are documented. The Houthi claims of hits on an East-West pipeline pumping station and a facility at Yanbu remain unverified, and Saudi-led coalition forces reported interceptions, not damage.
An open-source-intelligence read of how likely this story is true with its real nuance, not a judgment of any outlet. It assesses the claim, weighing independent and adversarial reporting. How we label confidence.
What this means
The market is pricing the blockade as a stable state rather than an escalation path. Inventories are rising, and Washington is signaling that it can live with the status quo, so each new attack on Saudi assets lifts prices for a day before they fall back. Producers whose budgets were built on prices above $100 lose. Importers such as India and refiners with margin exposure gain. The consensus may be too comfortable. Attacks on Saudi infrastructure are a supply risk separate from the Hormuz question, and Houthi capability does not depend on a US-Iran deal. A useful precedent is the September 2019 strike on the Abqaiq facility in Saudi Arabia. Prices spiked sharply, then retraced within weeks once Saudi output was restored, which taught traders to sell such spikes. The desk's read is that Brent will likely stay in a volatile range below its October peak for the next several weeks, as long as US inventories keep building and Saudi damage stays limited. This read is wrong if an attack causes a confirmed, lasting loss of Saudi output, or if the blockade is tightened to stop more Iranian barrels.
Synthesized from: Investing.com Commodities · The Nation Thailand · OilPrice · Dawn
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Comments
1Nov 13, 5:14 AM · edited
Weekly losses of 16% and 2.4% compound to about 18%, which puts Brent near $116 two weeks ago and shows Thursday's 3.3% jump recovered only a small part of the decline.