Oil prices fall as Europe releases diesel reserves; Middle East tensions rise

Oil prices settled lower on Friday after European leaders agreed to a request by US President Donald Trump to release diesel from their reserves in an effort to lower prices and reduce reliance on US fuel imports.

Brent crude futures fell 6 cents, or 0.06 percent, to settle at US$102.25 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) dropped $1.76, or 1.90 percent, to $91.11 a barrel.

For the week, Brent gained 0.11 percent, while WTI declined 1.6 percent.

Saudi Arabia's Civil Defense said falling debris from an intercepted ballistic missile injured one resident in Ahad Rafidah Governorate, in the southern Asir region. In a post on X, the authority said the debris also damaged a prayer room inside a building, as well as several vehicles. It did not give details on the injured person's condition or say where the missile was launched from.

Saudi Civil Defence teams in Najran responded on Friday after a hostile projectile launched by the Houthi militia struck a school, causing material damage, an official spokesperson said.

The Civil Defence authorities said standard procedures for dealing with such incidents were carried out.

Trump is considering putting US boots on the ground in Iran after the November midterms, because he feels he has "nothing to lose," per initial reports citing US officials.

A third US aircraft carrier and a second Marine expeditionary landing unit with more than 2,000 Marines are already heading to the region, which would bring the total to three carriers and two amphibious groups around Iran by November.

Yemen's Houthis said on Friday that Saudi forces launched 94 strikes against areas under their control in the past 24 hours, as the pro-Iran group and the Riyadh-backed government clash in the country's revived civil war.

The group said that the number of Saudi strikes on its positions had reached 1,350 since the start of the renewed fighting, saying they targeted areas across Houthi-held Yemen.

Iran’s IRGC is now warning it is fully prepared “with its finger on the trigger” to respond “decisively, immediately, painfully and more lethally than Operation True Promise II” to any US or regional threat, aggression or miscalculation, saying it has comprehensive intelligence on U.S. and Israeli assets and positions, per Mehr News.

Operation True Promise II was Iran’s October 2024 ballistic missile attack on Israel, when Tehran launched around 200 missiles. The IRGC is now explicitly warning that any new confrontation could bring a response even larger and more lethal than that attack.

The warning comes as the US deploys the USS Theodore Roosevelt and Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group toward the Middle East, potentially bringing three US carrier strike groups and two Amphibious Ready Groups near Iran by the end of November.