Brent crude touched 110 dollars a barrel in Friday trading for the first time since May 20 and settled at 109.86 dollars, up 3.7 percent on the day and nearly 5 percent on the week, while US West Texas Intermediate rose 3.5 percent to settle at 101.41 dollars, its first close above 100 dollars since September 21 and more than 10 percent higher on the week. The move caps a climb from about 105 dollars overnight through 108 and 109 dollars during Friday’s session as the tanker war widened on two fronts at once.
In the Gulf, at least nine tankers and cargo ships have come under attack since Sunday as Iran tries to choke off oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz, CNBC reported. US Central Command said Iran sank the container ship GFS Pride on Wednesday; the Singapore registered ship’s crew was safely evacuated, and the International Maritime Organization said the week’s attacks left three seafarers injured and two missing. Crude shipments through Hormuz pulled back to 9.4 million barrels a day in the week ended Wednesday, about 70 percent of the average before the Iran war, after touching prewar levels in September, on Kpler data cited by CNBC. Saudi Arabia said it intercepted several missiles fired over the Red Sea on Friday, including one heading toward the Yanbu oil export terminal, and destroyed three drones. The attacks extend a campaign in which strikes on merchant ships in the strait have already reached a new high, with 149 confirmed incidents since March 1 in today’s earlier reporting.
On the second front, the energy ceasefire President Trump tried to broker between Ukraine and Russia has unravelled, with the Kremlin continuing to attack Ukrainian infrastructure, and President Zelenskyy said Kyiv would resume strikes on Russian refineries in retaliation. The refinery threat lands on a fuel market already tight: US diesel averaged 6.33 dollars a gallon on Friday, more than 70 percent above a year earlier, on AAA data cited by CNBC, and US commercial crude inventories fell by more than 8 million barrels in the week ended October 9 as Hurricane Isaias shut in Gulf Coast production, on Energy Information Administration figures.
The two fronts compound. Hormuz risk lifts the crude benchmark and the freight rates that move it, while a resumed Ukrainian campaign against Russian refineries tightens the diesel supply that Europe and Asia compete for, which is why the price response ran through 110 dollars rather than stalling at the smaller war premium of earlier weeks.