SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Oil prices climbed on Monday after a major cyber attack that forced shutdown of critical fuel supply pipelines in the United States.
Brent crude futures rose 73 cents to $69.01 a barrel at 0640 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures jumped by 66 cents to $65.56 per barrel.
It comes after the top U.S. fuel pipeline operator Colonial Pipeline was targeted with a ransomware attack on Friday, forcing operators to shut down the system.
It is the source of nearly half of the U.S. East Coast’s fuel supply, transporting 2.5 million barrels per day of gasoline and other fuels.
Signaling the seriousness of the situation, the White House was working closely with Colonial Pipeline to help recover from the ransomware attack.
“The major takeaway is the bad guys are very adept at finding new ways to penetrate infrastructure,” President of Lipow Oil Associate Andrew Lipow told Reuters.
“Infrastructure has not developed defenses that can offset all the different ways that malware can infect one’s system.”
Colonial said on Sunday its main fuel lines remain offline but some smaller lines between terminals and delivery points were now operations.
A prolonged shutdown of the line, described as the “jugular of infrastructure” in the United States by one analyst, would cause retail prices to spike at gasoline pumps ahead of peak summer driving season, a potential blow to U.S. consumers and the economy, according to Reuters.
“The big unknown is how long the shutdown will last, but clearly the longer it goes on, the more bullish it will be for refined product prices,” ING Economics said in a note.
