Attacks by Iran against major energy infrastructure continued over the weekend, including strikes against Bahrain’s BAPCO oil refinery and the headquarters of Kuwait’s state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation.
Kuwait also reported attacks on several of the country’s power and desalination plants.
In a post to X on Saturday, an account reportedly close to Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf — a former IRGC general who has become a leading voice within the Iranian regime — said that if Iran “does not receive a credible signal by tomorrow of Trump reconsidering an attack on Iran’s infrastructure, it will preemptively, irreversibly, and on a massive scale target the Saudi electricity and oil production infrastructure, as well as that of the Israeli regime.”
“Iran has so far refrained from exercising this option in order to avoid entering an ‘irreversible infrastructure war’ and a ‘Ukrainization of the region,’ but the time for this restraint will end in the next 24 hours,” the account wrote.
At the same time, oil market watchers digested signs of potential partial resumption of oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most critical oil chokepoint.
Early Sunday morning, the foreign ministry of Oman announced that its leaders had met with Iran’s foreign ministry on Saturday and discussed “possible options for ensuring the smooth flow of transit through the Strait of Hormuz amid the circumstances currently prevailing in the region.”
Also on Saturday, Iran’s military leadership said Iraqi ships would be allowed to transit the Strait of Hormuz, potentially bringing roughly 3 million barrels per day of oil back onto the market.
The semi-official state-run Iranian Mehr News Agency quoted the Iranian president’s office saying, “The Strait of Hormuz will open when damages resulting from the war are compensated from transit fee revenues.”
On Sunday, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+) agreed to increase its monthly production quota by 206,000 barrels per day in May, the same increase the cartel’s member countries agreed upon for April.
