Brent crude climbed back above $100 a barrel on Wednesday for the first time since July, propelled by rising tensions between the US and Iran and a rebound in Chinese oil demand. The US military reported it had destroyed five Iranian tankers carrying crude after attempts to target a US Navy warship with ballistic missiles. Iran, for its part, claimed it had attacked two American vessels and eight oil tankers in the Gulf, and warned crews near Kuwaiti and Bahraini ports to abandon their ships.
The confrontation has intensified fears of further disruption to global oil flows, especially through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran-backed Houthi militants also struck energy facilities in southern Saudi Arabia, including the 400,000-barrel-a-day Jazan refinery. At the same time, recovering Chinese demand is bolstering prices for African, Canadian and Latin American crude, as disruptions around Hormuz push refiners to source alternative supplies from more distant markets.
