ANKARA
Oil prices moved sharply higher Thursday, before falling back, as Saudi Arabia conducts a military operation to its neighbor Yemen.
The price of the global benchmark Brent crude oil rose nearly 6 percent Thursday. Brent is currently up 4.4 percent at $58.96 a barrel from its closing price of $56.77 Wednesday.
The American benchmark West Texas Intermediate, WTI, rose 7 percent to $52.44 per barrel, from $48.98 percent at closing Wednesday.
Saudi Arabia launched airstrikes in Yemen, attacking Houthi rebels who are locked in violent combat with the government.
The Saudis are to use 185 war planes and to contribute 150,000 soldiers to a coalition force moving to fight the rebels.
Yemen's president has taken refuge in the Yemeni city of Aden, while the Houthi forces continue their advance to the southwestern city.
Aden is a geostrategic point near the the Bab el-Mandab, the strait which connects the Gulf of Aden with the Red Sea.
Bab el-Mandab is the fourth biggest choke point for oil in the world, with 3.8 million barrels per day of oil in transit, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Experts state that the crisis poses risks to the region, which is significant for oil production and exports in the world.
"Bab el-Mandab is a key oil supply route," Dr. Sijbren de Jong, a strategic analyst at The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies, told The Anadolu Agency.
"If the Houthi rebels succeed in destabilizing this part of the world, of course Saudi Arabia will react strongly, "given the strategic importance of this part of the world for global oil supply, it already sent the price of oil up."
Moreover, Dr. de Jong warned that if the conflict in Yemen escalates, this may bring the Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran, which supports the Houthis, into a collision course.
"It is more likely that this could escalate into a larger proxy war, with Iran backing the Houthi rebels, and Saudi Arabia supporting Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi," he explained.
Iran had voiced its concerns numerous times in the past about plummeting oil prices and blamed Saudi Arabia, which is the most influential OPEC member.
The oil cartel decided against cutting back on production on Nov. 27, 2014 to maintain market share against non-OPEC countries' rising oil output levels.
Iran President Hassan Rouhani said on Jan. 13 that low oil prices are "a plot," adding that if Iran suffers from the drop, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait will suffer more.
However, another expert believes that the crisis will not have much effect on the bilateral relations of Iran and Saudi Arabia.
"I do not think it will significantly change relations between the two countries," Richard Mallinson, a geopolitical analyst at London-based energy market consultancy Energy Aspects, told AA.
"Iran’s role in supporting the Houthis is often overstated," he said.
"The actual supply impact will be limited," Mallinson explained. Oil prices are unlikely to keep rising, he added.
