Good morning, folks. Welcome back to another work week where the war casts a large shadow on the region.
The US bombed Iran’s Kharg Island — the country’s primary oil export hub — over the weekend. Washington claims to have only targeted military infrastructure on the island, but signaled that future strikes could target oil infrastructure unless Tehran reopens the Strait of Hormuz. We’ll be watching closely when markets open tomorrow to see how oil reacts to the news.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps countered by saying any infrastructure associated with the US may be targeted. It also urged all US industries to leave the region.
CLOSER TO HOME- Drone and missile attacks intensified on the Kingdom over the weekend, with air defenses intercepting at least two ballistic missiles targeting the Eastern Province and Prince Sultan air base — where five US refueling planes were reportedly struck on the ground on Friday. Scores of drones were also intercepted over Riyadh, the Eastern Province, and Al Kharj. Meanwhile, a drone strike in UAE’s Fujairah resulted in a now-extinguished fire and a pause on crude and fuel exports.
Iran’s diplomatic cover is looking thin (not that it matters much). The UN Security Council adopted a widely backed resolution condemning missile and drone attacks on the GCC and Jordan, while holding Tehran liable for the resulting damage and affirming the region’s right to self-defense. The vote passed 13-0, with China and Russia abstaining.
Despite the quagmire, S&P still gave us an A+. The Kingdom has the buffers to ride out disruptions and withstand the economic fallout from the Iran conflict, the ratings agency said in its latest ratings update, which we unpack in today’s big story.
Still, the conflict is throwing plans for international events into limbo, including upcoming F1 races in Saudi and Bahrain. We have more details on this in today’s news well, below.
Happening today
Gastat is set to roll out annual inflation data for February today. The Kingdom’s annual inflation rate declined to 1.8% in January from 2.1% in the previous month, falling short of market expectations of 2% and marking the lowest reading since February 2025.
Market watch
Safaniya and Zuluf halt pushes Saudi production down: Saudi slashed oil production by around 2 mn bbl / d to roughly 8 mn bbl / d after halting output from its Safaniya and Zuluf offshore fields, unnamed sources told Reuters.
Why the halt? The two fields produce heavy and medium-heavy crude, while Aramco is currently prioritizing its abundant Arab Light and Extra Light grades through the East-West pipeline, pausing medium and heavy crudes due to limited alternative export capacity, CEO Amin Nasser said last week.
It’s all part of the Yanbu pivot…: As Saudi Arabia diverts crude to its Red Sea port at Yanbu amid Strait of Hormuz restrictions, the 1.2k-km pipeline — capable of handling 7 mn bbl / d — is set to reach full capacity within days, channeling most exports to the Red Sea while about 2 mn bbl / d continue to supply domestic refineries.
… which the Kingdom is sailing at a premium: National Shipping Company (Bahri) is chartering supertankers at record rates to move crude from Yanbu, with six very large crude carriers booked recently and 24 more already en route, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing ship-tracking data. Bahri is paying over USD 450k per day for tanker charters — up from USD 300k pre-war.
Our take? With Brent hovering around USD 100 / bbl since the Hormuz choke, the conflict premium likely covers the transport costs, allowing the Kingdom to reap the benefits of higher oil prices that eluded the market the past year. Bypassing the Strait of Hormuz via Yanbu, even at higher transport costs, is also crucial to preserve storage buffers and prevent production shutdowns from system backups.
Setting the record straight
Aramco says a Saudi-Ukraine drone agreement is “inaccurate”: Saudi Aramco dismissed reports suggesting it is in negotiations with Ukrainian firms to purchase interceptor drones to protect its energy infrastructure, the oil giant told Reuters.
BACKGROUND- The statement came in response to media reports that emerged last week claiming Riyadh was in negotiations with Kyiv to acquire USD mns worth of Ukrainian-made interceptor drones.
Watch this space
INVESTMENT — DHL Express Europe plans to proceed with its investment plans in the Middle East despite the ongoing regional conflict, CEO Mike Parra told Sky News Arabia (watch, runtime: 4:43).
ICYMI- DHL group last year announced plans to deploy over EUR 500 mn in the region between 2024 and 2030, with a focus on the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The strategy spans the group’s four divisions — DHL Express, DHL Global Forwarding, DHL Supply Chain, and DHL eCommerce. DHL Express is expected to upgrade its hub and gateway infrastructure while expanding air fleet capacity.
Disruptions from the conflict have meant DHL has had to tweak some of its routes, with airport closures and shipping delays prompting the company to reroute cargo by flying shipments to hubs in Asia, including Kazakhstan, before transporting them by road into the Middle East, Parra said.
REAL ESTATE — The NHC isn’t slowing down: The National Housing Company (NHC) is still aiming to develop 600k housing units by 2030 despite the war’s impact on regional supply chains, CEO Mohammed Albuty told Asharq Business (watch, runtime: 2:45). The NHC has been securing supply chains and localized building material production to mitigate regional disruptions for two years, Albuty said. The company is now setting up logistics centers and industrial cities in Riyadh, the Eastern Province, and Jeddah, ensuring project materials are produced close to development sites.
Why it matters: The NHC is pushing ahead with its target despite higher construction costs created by the Strait of Hormuz’s impact on oil prices, which make up 80% of construction input costs, and logistics bottlenecks. While Red Sea developments are less affected, Riyadh and the Eastern Province face severe material shortages and lead-time uncertainty as the chokepoint restricts essential Asian imports. This shift from a demand-driven boom to supply instability has created risk-pricing uncertainty and contract delays.
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The big story abroad
The regional war dominated headlines over the weekend. US President Donald Trump has called on China, France, Japan, South Korea, and the UK to send warships to force open the Strait of Hormuz along with US naval forces. Meanwhile, Tehran claimed that the waterway is only shut to ships from “enemies.”
And in the world of AI: Tech giant Nvidia is looking to roll out a new chip specially geared to speed up AI responses in what could be a pivot from its usual one-size-fits-all approach to chipmaking. Rather than training AI models, the proposed chip will focus on “inference,” a process through which machine learning models draw conclusions from brand new data.


