2021.03.0809:20:00UTC+00Oil Prices Give Up Early Gains

Oil prices continued to surge on Monday, with Brent crude futures climbing above $70 a barrel for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic began and U.S. crude hitting its highest in more than two years, after reports of attacks on Saudi Arabian facilities.

Brent crude futures for May settlement traded flat at $69.36 per barrel after hitting as high as $71.38 in early Asian trade, the highest since Jan. 8, 2020.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures for April delivery were up 0.1 percent at $66.11 after having touched $67.98 a barrel earlier in the day, the highest since October 2018.

Saudi Arabia said some of the world's most protected oil infrastructure came under missile and drone attack on Sunday in an escalation of regional hostilities, raising concerns about Saudi Arabia's air defenses and the expanding capabilities of the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

The official Saudi Press Agency quoted an anonymous official in the Ministry of Energy as saying that a drone flew in from the sea and struck an oil storage site in Ras Tunura, the port run by Saudi Arabia's state oil company, Aramco.

The Ministry of Energy denounced the strike as "an act of sabotage" targeting not only Saudi Arabia "but also the security and stability of energy supplies to the world." Meanwhile, oil output appeared to be unaffected.