Oil prices held steady on Thursday, despite renewed attacks between the US and Iran and the first drone strike of the war in Egypt. The suspected drone attack led two ships — a US-owned gas storage tanker and a Greek-operated LNG carrier — to catch fire at Egypt’s Mediterranean port of Damietta on Wednesday. Two Iranians told The New York Times the strike was designed to show how much further global shipping and energy supplies could be disrupted. Qatar, as a result, is scrambling to buy LNG cargoes from the US it can resell to its customers in Asia, and US crude oil stockpiles are hitting new lows. Traffic through Bab el-Mandeb is down a fifth in the past 10 days.