Oil Search chief executive Peter Botten has described the drone strikes on oil production facilities in Saudi Arabia as a "watershed" moment for the sector, exposing the vulnerability of key oil and gas infrastructure to these sorts of attacks and adding a new risk dynamic to the market.

"This goes beyond an attack on one refinery," Mr Botten told The Australian Financial Review after Brent crude oil prices surged as much as 19.5 per cent in response to the loss of about 5.5 per cent of the world's oil production.