NEW YORK / LONDON — Crude oil surged about 6 percent on Thursday, with Brent climbing to $107.08 a barrel and U.S. West Texas Intermediate clearing $100 for the first time since May, as traders priced in deeper supply risk from the largest spike in tanker attacks since the Iran war began, Reuters reported.
Both benchmarks are up more than 30 percent from early-August lows after hopes for a lasting U.S.-Iran ceasefire faded. Iran said it attacked ships near the Strait of Hormuz after U.S. strikes on Iranian tankers; Iran-aligned Houthis seized Yemen’s Mocha port, adding Red Sea risk on top of Hormuz constraints.
“Crude oil markets are now settling into a prolonged new normal where disruption risk is persistent, not episodic,” an S&P Global Energy analysis cited by Reuters said. OPEC cut its 2026 world demand-growth forecast for a fifth straight month, to 380,000 barrels per day, even as physical markets drew support from stronger Chinese buying in recent weeks.
U.S. crude inventories fell 391,000 barrels last week to 424.1 million, the EIA said, a smaller draw than analysts expected but still consistent with firm refining runs. A Reuters survey found OPEC output down 640,000 bpd in August amid Saudi export disruptions and curtailed Iranian shipments.
For markets, the question is less whether $100 was a headline level than whether China keeps importing into a war premium — and whether further strikes on tankers or export infrastructure push prices toward this year’s $126 peak reached in April.
Equity and rate traders are watching the same tape: higher oil feeds inflation fears already visible in European rate hikes and U.S. mortgage yields.
