Saudi Arabia says it shot down eight drones in a day, Aramco empties its Dhahran headquarters, and oil settles near 113 dollars

The attacks on Saudi Arabia did not stop with the airport and the oil field. Colonel Turki Al Maliki, spokesman for the coalition backing Yemen government, said Saudi forces intercepted and destroyed eight drones in 24 hours, including four in the Riyadh and Madinah regions in a single hour on Thursday. The pace tells the story. The Houthis in Yemen, backed by Iran, are no longer firing the occasional salvo. They are keeping a steady pressure on the kingdom air defenses, day after day.

Saudi Aramco has now ordered its remaining staff to evacuate its headquarters in Dhahran and work from home until further notice, Agence France Presse reported, citing two sources briefed on the matter. Staff who were not essential had already been working remotely after the headquarters complex in eastern Saudi Arabia was hit last week. The sources said homes inside the complex were not evacuated. Riyadh international airport has been closed for days and a major investment conference has been postponed.

Markets priced the risk in. Brent crude climbed 4 percent on Thursday to settle near 113 dollars a barrel, the biggest one day gain in about two weeks and the highest settlement since May, as of October 22. American crude closed above 99 dollars. Bloomberg reported that exports through the Strait of Hormuz have climbed back toward levels seen before the war, as tankers switch off their transponders to avoid detection, but shipments of refined products remain constrained and insurers and crews still have to be willing to sail.

Saudi Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser put a number on the damage the long war has already done. In an interview with Al Arabiya Business aired Thursday, he said the crisis has removed an estimated 3 billion barrels of oil from global markets since it began in February, close to a month of world consumption. He warned that prices could have passed 200 dollars a barrel without emergency reserve releases, a sharp cut in Chinese seaborne imports, and Aramco East West pipeline, which bypasses Hormuz. He also warned that the end of the crisis would bring its own pressure, as countries rush to refill depleted reserves.

Washington position has not changed since Wednesday. The State Department has ordered non emergency staff and family members out of Saudi Arabia, and reporting from Reuters and NBC News says removals reach beyond the kingdom to American personnel in Jordan, Kuwait and Qatar. The New York Times has reported that the United States and Israel have developed specific plans for renewed strikes on Iran after the November 3 midterm elections, aimed at energy sites, nuclear facilities, and missile and drone forces. Iran foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said Thursday that Tehran is ready to give diplomacy another chance if Washington shows sincerity, and warned that another American attack would fail worse than the last.

Nothing in Thursday news points to an early end. The drones keep coming, the headquarters is empty, and the oil price is telling traders the strait is not safe yet. (Illustration note: this story runs without a picture.)