Oil jumps $2 on escalating Middle East tension

By Siyi Liu

SINGAPORE, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Oil prices rallied over $2 a barrel on Thursday after more Houthi attacks in Saudi Arabia stoked concerns over a broader escalation of conflict and further disruptions to crude supplies from the world's key exporting region.

Brent crude futures climbed $2.82, or 2.59%, to $111.64 a barrel at 0626 GMT, close to a five-month high. US West Texas Intermediate crude gained $2.24, or 2.31%, to $99.39.

"Oil prices remain well bid, with ICE Brent back above $110 per barrel this morning following additional deadly attacks on Saudi Arabia," ING analysts said in a note on Thursday.

The US State Department plans to withdraw family members from a number of other US missions in the region, US officials told Reuters. 

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis struck several targets on Wednesday with at least one person killed and eight more wounded at a civilian airport in Dammam, and two people killed in a drone attack on a Saudi oil field.

Explosions were also heard in Sirik in southern Iran, Iranian media reported on Wednesday, saying the nature and origin of the explosions were unknown.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy said on Thursday that four vessels involved in illegal oil transfers in the northern Persian Gulf were simultaneously hit and caught fire after being tracked by its forces on Wednesday.

The IRGC added that three more vessels collided with mines west of the Strait of Hormuz, and warned the US military that continued provocations could lead to a wider response against its regional bases.

Supply disruption continued to impact global inventories.

US crude stocks fell by 3.06 million barrels to 412.5 million barrels last week, the US Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for an 820,000-barrel draw.

Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, rose 1.68 million barrels in the week to 104.3 million barrels, versus expectations for a 1.16 million-barrel drop, EIA data showed.

The Trump administration is offering to loan up to nearly a third of the 1-million-barrel US emergency heating oil reserve, the Department of Energy said on Wednesday, seeking to contain prices that have surged on diesel shortages due to the wars in Iran and Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in St Petersburg on Wednesday for talks on ending the war in Ukraine amid Washington's latest push to stop Europe's bloodiest conflict since World War Two.

The Kremlin said Putin had agreed to resume US-mediated peace talks with Ukraine as soon as next month. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he supported the talks and hoped they would start as soon as possible.

(Reporting by Arathy Somasekhar in Houston and Siyi Liu in Singapore; Editing by Kate Mayberry and Saad Sayeed)