Crude oil prices climbed above $91.50 a barrel on Thursday, extending a six-week high as Iran continued its attacks on US-aligned Gulf states. Kuwait’s armed forces said the country was facing “ongoing Iranian aggression,” noting that its air defenses had intercepted missiles and drones. Iran’s actions followed US strikes on Tuesday and included retaliatory attacks on Washington’s regional partners Jordan and Bahrain.
Only six commodity vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, down from 11 on Tuesday and below the 10-day average of nearly 13, underscoring mounting disruption to a key global energy chokepoint. Japan’s Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, the world’s largest tanker operator, now anticipates that disturbances in the strait will last longer than previously expected, with no return to normal conditions by year-end in light of this week’s renewed escalation in hostilities.
At the same time, damage to refineries in the Middle East and Russia, combined with limited spare capacity in other regions to compensate for these outages, is expected to keep global fuel prices elevated into next year.
