Global Oil Prices Rise as Conflict with Iran Deepens

Oil prices continued to rise on Thursday as fighting between the United States and Iran and its allies escalated, adding to fears about shipping energy out of the Middle East.

The Houthis, an Iran-backed militia in Yemen, claimed to have attacked two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea after threatening a blockade in the region. And Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said one of three oil tankers trying to pass through a “mined route” south of the Strait of Hormuz caught fire after an explosion, prompting the other two ships to turn back, according to a statement carried by Iran’s official state news agency.

The United States said it had completed its 12th night of consecutive strikes intended to “degrade Iran’s ability to threaten civilian mariners and commercial vessels.”

Oil continues to rise.

• The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, rose nearly 6 percent to top $96 a barrel. As the fighting in the Middle East has intensified, Brent has gained about $12 over the past week. The cost of crude is up about 33 percent since the start of the war.

• West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, climbed nearly 2 percent to $88.45 a barrel.

• Several factors inform the trajectory of oil prices. Investors and analysts are monitoring how many ships are passing through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman. They will also pay close attention to the Houthis’ claim that the group followed through on its threat to blockade the Bab al-Mandab strait at the southern end of the Red Sea, which Saudi Arabia has used as an alternative route to export oil.

• The conflict is widening at a vulnerable time for energy markets. Oil stockpiles are smaller than they were when U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran began at the end of February, and Ukrainian attacks have severely damaged Russian refineries, tightening supplies of transportation fuels like diesel.

Global stocks are essentially flat.

• Futures on the S&P 500 pointed to little change in prices when markets reopen in the United States on Thursday.

• Stocks in Asia, where countries import vast quantities of oil and gas, largely held steady. South Korea’s Kospi index was up more than 3 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index, which is made up mostly of companies from China’s mainland, was up just over 1 percent.

Shipping traffic in the Persian Gulf has been low.

• Six vessels reversed course in the Red Sea on Monday and Tuesday away from the Bab al-Mandab strait, after the Houthis warned shipping companies to avoid Saudi ports, according to Kpler, a maritime data firm.

• The Houthis’ claim of attacks on ships in the Red Sea on Thursday followed a threat the group made earlier this week to blockade ships from Saudi ports. In recent months, Saudi Arabia diverted millions of barrels of oil per day via the Bab al-Mandab strait to avoid the Strait of Hormuz. Some ships are now moving north toward the Suez Canal, according to Kpler, but that route to Asia is costlier and logistically more complex.

• Any reduction in oil flows from Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu port on the Red Sea could cause oil prices to rise significantly, Clarksons, a shipbroker, said in a note.

Gasoline prices have risen.

• Gas prices in the United States rose by 4 cents on Wednesday, to $4.06 a gallon, according to the AAA motor club. The national average price at the pump has risen 36 percent since the war began.

• Gas prices usually trail crude oil increases or drops by a few days. Many of the world’s refineries are offline or producing less after sustaining damage — including in the Persian Gulf and Russia — straining fuel markets.

• The average price of diesel rose to $5.18 a gallon on Wednesday, up about 38 percent since the start of the war.

Jenny Gross, Shirin Hakim and Pranav Baskar contributed reporting.