Oil tops $100 as Middle East tensions threaten supplies
Baku, July 23, AZERTAC
Oil prices surged past $100 a barrel Thursday as threats to oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb, along with fears of attacks on energy infrastructure across the Middle East, fueled supply concerns, Anadolu Agency reported.
International benchmark Brent crude traded at $100.17 per barrel at 4.16 p.m. local time (1316 GMT), up around 6.5% from the previous close of $94.07.
US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) traded at $91.54 per barrel, up around 5.46% from $86.80 in the previous session.
Brent crude futures climbed to their highest level since May 27.
The latest rise followed fresh warnings from Washington and Tehran, as well as reported attacks on Saudi oil tankers and an explosion involving a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz.
US President Donald Trump said Thursday that Washington will hold Tehran accountable if the Yemeni Houthi group attacks commercial vessels.
"A year ago the United States of America attacked, very powerfully, the Houthis, for their interference with commerce and trade, by shooting at ships," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
"Since that time, and during our conflict with Iran, they have acted very responsibly. Unfortunately, now they are starting up again, shooting at two Saudi Arabian ships last night," he added.
"Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that if they do this again, the U.S. will hold Iran responsible, in that the Houthis are a Surrogate and/or Proxy of Iran, and major military punishment will be inflicted upon Iran and, of course, the Houthis, themselves, who I am very disappointed with in that they have, until now, acted very professionally and smart."
His remarks came after Yemen’s Houthi group said earlier Thursday that they carried out a military operation targeting two Saudi oil tankers with ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as drones.
US Secretary of State Rubio on Thursday said that Houthis should "stay out of" the Iran conflict, claiming that they were “suckered into” the war in the Middle East by Tehran.
"I hope that they'll stop. They shouldn't really do that. They got suckered into this by the Iranians," Rubio told reporters.
Tensions rose further after Iran's military warned late Wednesday that it could target energy facilities across the region if US strikes on Iranian infrastructure continued.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said Thursday that it had attacked US military bases in Kuwait and Jordan. The IRGC also said an oil tanker was hit by an explosion in the Strait of Hormuz, prompting two other vessels to abandon transit through a southern shipping lane that it said had been mined.
The developments added to concerns over security in the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most important oil shipping chokepoint, through which roughly one-fifth of global oil consumption passes.
The US military said late Wednesday that it had carried out another round of strikes on Iranian military targets, marking the 12th consecutive night of operations. Iranian media reported explosions at several locations in the country's southwest and south, including damage to a power station near the Bushehr nuclear power plant.
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