Saudi Arabia getting involved in conflict in Yemen with Iranian supported rebels sends oil up to 51.50 overnight.
Dan Tsubouchi:
As of 9:45 pm mountain time Wed, WTI is trading up $1.85/b. The story is Yemen. Here are some quick items for background
1. The houthi rebels push in south to Aden. Below is the map posted by Bloomberg on Wed evening.
2. Reports on Wed evening (Thurs morning Middle East time) that Saudi Arabia was bombing Houthi positions in Yemen.
3. Markets are responding to two major items. (a) Houthi are described as Iran backed. Below is a map from the Globe & Mail on the shia/sunni regional splits that was in my March 22, 2015 Energy Tidbits memo
http://www.theglobalmail.org/feature...ddle-east/349/ (b) Yemen, in particular SW Yemen’s strategic location for the Bab el-Mandab, which is one of the major oil transit lands in the world moving 3.8 million b/d of oil in 2013. Below is the table from the EIA world oil transit chokepoints report and the map on the Bab el Mandab, the EIA report is attached.