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Brent crude tops $105 as Middle East shipping attacks disrupt supplies
Brent rose nearly $5 to about $106 a barrel, while WTI jumped $4.50 to $95.39 as Red Sea and Persian Gulf disruptions add to inflation concerns.
Crude prices surged on Thursday, September 10, with Brent climbing above $105 a barrel on intensifying attacks and shipping disruptions across key Middle East routes. According to LiveMint Markets, Iran-backed Houthi militants have taken control of Yemen’s Red Sea city of Mocha, bringing them closer to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a strategic chokepoint for tankers. That development, alongside intensified tanker attacks in the region, added to fresh worries about global oil supply.
LiveMint Markets reported that Brent rose nearly $5 to around $106 a barrel, the highest level since May 22, extending gains for a fifth straight session. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate increased $4.50 to $95.39 a barrel, following renewed attacks on oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and after Brent crossed $100 earlier in the week.
The article also links the move to broader disruption risk in the region, including traffic restrictions through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway through which about a fifth of the world’s oil supply passed before the war began. Rising fuel costs are also raising inflation concerns and increasing pressure on consumers, according to LiveMint Markets.
Separately, Saudi Arabia reported a sharp decline in crude production. LiveMint Markets cited a notification to OPEC’s secretariat that Saudi output fell by 1.9 million barrels a day to 6.238 million barrels a day, and noted the production level was even lower than the previous wartime nadir reached in April, according to an OPEC monthly report obtained by Bloomberg. The story also referenced Bloomberg’s provisional tanker-tracking data indicating Saudi crude exports fell by about a third in August to roughly 3 million barrels a day.
Latest closeWTI crude $97.01 ▲4.3%|Brent $102.05 ▲4.2%