Middle East Threats Help Keep Oil Prices Up

Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour Turki said there was information about a possible act targeting a mall or Saudi Aramco installations.We passed this information to the security forces to be on alert.*
The threat was not specified,but it could be from Houthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen that Saudi Arabia has been in conflict with since 26 March,conducting numerous air strikes on the Iran-backed Houthis with Persian Gulf and other allies participating.It could also be a threat from al-Qaida in the Arabian Penninsula,which has carried out raids on Saudi territory before,or from ISIL,both of which groups are active in Yemen.
Frayed nerves were in evidence Saturday as guards at a shopping mall in central Riyadh barred single men from entering and searched female shoppers' bags,Reuters reported.AQAP militants had staged a car bomb attack on the Aramco refinery at Abqaiq in 2006,but were killed when security forces opened fire on them,causing one of the two car bombs to explode,which in turn damaged a pipeline.After the attack,a dedicated Facilities Protection Force was set up with 40,000 personnel.*
Meanwhile,a proposed pan-Arab security force to counter ISIL and other Islamist extremists is moving closer to reality.On Wednesday,Arab defence chiefs will confer in Cairo on specifics about the force such as how it will be constituted;what its role will be;and the details of financing it,according to the Arab League.The drive was spearheaded by Egypt in the wake of ISIL's February killing of 21 Coptic Orthodox Christians who were citizens of Egypt working in Libya.
On Sunday,there was more trouble when ISIL released a video showing at least 28 Ethiopian Orthodox Christians being executed in two different Libyan locations,on a beach and in the desert,some by shooting and some by beheading.ISIL referred to the victims as followers of the cross from the enemy Ethiopian Church.
The United States condemns in the strongest terms the brutal mass murder purportedly of Ethiopian Christians by ISIL-affiliated militants in Libya,National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said.This atrocity once again underscores the urgent need for a political resolution to the conflict in Libya to empower a unified Libyan rejection of terrorist groups.*
West Texas Intermediate crude closed up 0.64,or 1.15%,to 56.50 bbl;while Brent crude inched up .07,or 0.11%,to 63.52 bbl in Monday trading.Other factors in the increase included a smaller stockpile of WTI crude and a decline in the number of US oil rigs.