WTI erases losses and hits fresh three-month highs near $92.70 as Gulf hostilities escalate. Early-June highs at $94.87 remain in sight. Separate Asia tape: Brent near $100 wire split.
West Texas Intermediate erased earlier losses on Wednesday and printed fresh three-month highs as Middle East hostilities intensified.
WTI retraced previous losses to hit fresh three-month highs at $92.70, with the early-June highs of $94.87 in sight. Crude maintained a firm tone as the Middle East risked escalating into a wider regional war.
Tuesday’s US–Iran attack exchange, Iran-backed Houthi strikes on Saudi oilfields, and Saudi retaliatory strikes in Yemen sit on the same Gulf tape already live as CENTCOM five carriers and Saudi energy halt / Brent ~$98. Asia oil’s Brent-near-$100 wire split is the prior Asia session.
Attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz keep oil traffic limited in a waterway that used to carry about 20% of global supply before the war. Rabobank: “maritime nations are warning that global shipping rules are collapsing, which could take much global trade with it as some worry if there is enough bunker fuel for the ships to use.” The bank notes “the Suez Canal (…) seeing more passages as tankers try to avoid Hormuz,” even as the “Panama Canal is warning of deeper transit cuts as the El Niño drought threat intensifies.”
Earlier this week, Goldman Sachs co-head of global commodities research Dean Struyven warned oil prices might reach $120 per barrel in a Bloomberg TV interview, citing “the risk of shipping disruptions broadening and intensifying.”
Also see: AUD/USD Hits Fresh Four-Month Highs at 0.7237 on USD Weakness, China CPI Rebound.
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South Korea dispatches a Hormuz assessment team to the UAE while stressing deployment is not presupposed. Blue House still reviewing; NSC report on return; Lee Paris FoN; National Assembly needed for any troop dispatch.
Iraq seeks a significant OPEC+ output-quota increase from a 6 million b/d baseline in the capacity audit. Current ceiling 4.431M b/d; IEA sustainable capacity ~4.9M; August pump ~2.98M.
Brent nears $100 in Asia after CENTCOM tanker strikes: Reuters $99.33, CNBC $99.44, BBC $99.35. WTI stamp split — wire mid-$94s vs a separate Asia page near $92.50 — each quoted, not averaged.