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| Saudi billionaire Prince AlWaleed bin Talal looks on during a news briefing in Manama. AlWaleed is one of the men detained in the purge. |
- Brent oil price jumps to its highest level in over two years on Monday morning.
- Jump comes amid ongoing purge in Saudi Arabia, the world's second largest oil producer in terms of barrels per day.
- Saudi Arabia's state oil company, Aramco, is set to list on the stock market next year.
LONDON — Oil prices have jumped to their highest levels in over two years on Monday morning as Saudi Arabia purges ministers and businessmen on the grounds of anti-corruption, sparking concerns about oil production in the country and driving up prices.
Dozens of
people have been detained in the crackdown, which has consolidated Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s power. Billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin
Talal, Saudi Arabia's best-known international investor, is also being
held, officials said at the weekend.
The
crackdown comes as plans for Saudi Arabia's economic reform programme
accelerate, with the jewel in the crown — the public listing of state
oil company Saudi Aramco — fast approaching.
As the
world's second largest producer of oil, and the de facto head of the oil
cartel OPEC, any possible disruption to production in the Kingdom would
likely have a huge impact on the global balance of supply and demand
for the commodity.
"In the
early trading hours, Brent reached a high of $62.44, a level last seen
in July 2015, and represents a 40.8% surge from June’s lows," Hussein
Sayed, Chief Market Strategist at FXTM said in an email.
Here's the
chart of the rise of Brent crude — the international oil benchmark — in
recent days (note oil's peak on Monday morning):
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