Key facts
- Brent crude futures rose $1.05 to $108.68 a barrel.
- US West Texas Intermediate crude rose 95 cents to $103.45 a barrel.
- Both benchmarks rose over 6% on Thursday.
- Benchmarks were trading nearly 13% higher on a weekly basis.
- Iran claimed it attacked 10 ships near the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday.
- OPEC slashed its 2026 global oil demand growth outlook to 580,000 b/d.
Oil prices were set to post a significant weekly gain, with Brent crude futures nearing $100 a barrel and WTI crude futures trading above $103, driven by escalating attacks on ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz and stalled US-Iran settlement talks. Despite a substantial build in US crude inventories, the geopolitical tensions in the Middle East are underpinning bullish sentiment.
Iran claimed to have attacked 10 ships near the Strait of Hormuz, while Iran-aligned Houthis seized control of Yemen's port of Mocha. These actions have heightened fears of supply disruptions, pushing both benchmarks up by nearly 13% on a weekly basis.
OPEC has revised its 2026 global oil demand growth outlook downward to 580,000 barrels per day, a stark contrast to the IEA's prediction of a 1.6 million b/d decline in supply. Saudi Aramco is reportedly negotiating September supplies individually with Asian buyers as shipowners avoid the Hormuz and Red Sea routes.
In other energy-related news, Russia's seaborne refined product exports plunged in July, and a Ukrainian drone strike shut down the Orsk refinery for up to six months. Separately, a blast at Gunvor's Rotterdam terminal killed one person and injured several others, leading to the halt of an ExxonMobil refinery.