SINGAPORE, Sept 7 — Oil prices continued to climb on Monday as reciprocal U.S. and Iranian strikes on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and surrounding areas increased concerns that disruptions to Middle East oil supplies could persist.
Brent crude futures rose 79 cents, or 0.82%, to $97.07 a barrel by 0512 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude gained 80 cents, or 0.87%, to reach $92.28 a barrel.
Brent advanced 7.8% last week, while WTI rose nearly 10% after the United States and Iran resumed attacks, reducing oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, a route through which a fifth of the world’s oil supply used to pass.
U.S. forces attacked three Iranian oil tankers on Saturday, the U.S. Central Command said. One of the vessels was struck off the coast of Kharg Island, close to Iran’s major oil export hub.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy said Saturday that it had targeted three oil tankers using unauthorized routes through the Strait of Hormuz, along with three other U.S. vessels in separate locations.
Maritime intelligence firm Marisks described the Saturday strikes as a “major escalation in the maritime conflict.”
“Commercial tankers are now being deliberately used as instruments of reciprocal economic pressure, substantially weakening the previous distinction between military confrontation and commercial shipping,” it added.
Data from analytics firm Kpler showed that an average of 10 commodity ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz each day during the past 10 days, the lowest level since May.
“If tanker traffic begins to slow materially, the market could price in a much larger supply shock. And there are already signs that this is happening,” said Priyanka Sachdeva, head of market insights at Phillip Nova.
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said on Sunday, according to state media, that a restricted zone would be announced outside the Strait of Hormuz in the coming days.
At a meeting on Sunday, OPEC+ decided to leave its oil output policy unchanged for October, the producer group said in a statement. It said new quotas must first be agreed before determining its next steps on production.
ANZ analysts said a prolonged standoff involving calibrated military action by the United States and Iran appeared to be the most likely outcome and could delay the recovery of Middle East oil supplies.
“We then expect exports to remain constrained through the rest of 2026, before a gradual reopening late in Q4 2026,” they said. They added that oil flows were not expected to return to pre-war levels until late first quarter or early second quarter of 2027.
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