Oil prices are soaring: Brent is heading for a record monthly rise
This is according to Reuters.
Brent futures rose by $2.43, or 2.16%, to $115 a barrel after gaining 4.2% on Friday.
US West Texas Intermediate crude was trading at $101.50 a barrel, up $1.86, or 1.87%, following a 5.5% rise in the previous session.
“The market has almost entirely dismissed the prospect of a negotiated end to the war, despite Trump’s statements about ongoing ‘direct and indirect’ contacts with Iran, and is bracing for a sharp escalation of hostilities, which is a positive signal for oil, given the enormous uncertainty regarding the timing and nature of the outcome,” said Vandana Hari, founder of the analytical firm Vanda Insights.
US President Donald Trump stated that the US and Iran are holding meetings “directly and indirectly”, and that Iran’s new leaders had been “very sensible”, whilst additional US troops arrived in the region and the Israeli military reported on Monday that it was attacking Iranian government infrastructure across Tehran.
This month, Brent crude rose by 59%, marking the sharpest monthly surge and exceeding the rise seen during the 1990 Gulf War, after the conflict with Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz – a route through which a fifth of the world’s oil and gas supplies pass.
The escalation, which began on 28 February with US and Israeli strikes on Iran, has spread to the Middle East: on Saturday, the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen launched their first attacks on Israel since the start of the conflict, heightening concerns over shipping lanes around the Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea.
‘The conflict is no longer confined to the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, but is now spreading to the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb – one of the world’s most critical chokepoints for the flow of crude oil and petroleum products,” noted analysts at JP Morgan, led by Natasha Kaneva, in a report.
Saudi oil exports, diverted from the Strait of Hormuz to the port of Yanbu on the Red Sea, reached 4.658 million barrels per day last week, according to data from the analytics firm Kpler.
