US is ready to use emergency oil reserve ‘if necessary’ after Saudi attacks

The US can unseal its emergency oil reserves to fill the gap in the oil market in case of shortages after Saudi Arabia’s key oil facilities were targeted in a drone attack, the US Department of Energy has announced.

Energy Secretary Rick Perry “stands ready to deploy resources from the Strategic Petroleum Oil Reserves if necessary to offset any disruptions to oil markets as a result of this act of aggression,” the agency said in a statement.

Earlier the international energy watchdog, the International Energy Agency (IEA), assured that the oil market has enough crude supplies, while Saudi Aramco, whose facilities came under attack, said that the clients’ needs will be covered from its reserves.

On Saturday, a swarm of armed drones hit a refinery at Abqaiq oil facility, the world’s key oil site responsible for a bulk of global supplies, as well as a refinery at the Khurais oil field. Despite the Houthi rebels in Yemen claiming responsibility for the strikes, the US blames Iran for it. Tehran has already rebuffed the allegations, calling it “maximum lies.”