<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oil prices jumped sharply in Asian trading on Thursday as the conflict in the Middle East entered its sixth day with no clear signs of de-escalation, fueling fears of significant supply disruptions from one of the world\u2019s most critical energy-producing regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By 01:01 ET (06:01 GMT)<\/strong>, Brent crude futures rose 4% to $84.64 per barrel<\/strong>, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude climbed 4.2% to $77.75 per barrel<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brent traded just below its highest level since July 2024<\/strong>, after both benchmarks finished Wednesday\u2019s volatile session largely unchanged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The crisis began last Friday when U.S. and Israeli forces launched coordinated strikes on Iran<\/strong>, triggering retaliatory missile and drone attacks across the region and raising concerns about the safety of key energy infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tensions escalated further this week after the U.S. Navy sank an Iranian warship near Sri Lanka in international waters<\/strong>, highlighting how the conflict is expanding beyond the Persian Gulf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Markets were also closely monitoring diplomatic signals after reports suggested that Iran\u2019s Ministry of Intelligence had reached out to Washington to discuss ending the conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tehran quickly rejected those claims, calling them \u201cpure falsehood\u201d<\/strong> and accusing Western media of spreading misinformation, which dampened hopes for a quick diplomatic breakthrough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Supply fears intensified after Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz<\/strong>, one of the most important oil transit routes in the world. Roughly 20% of global oil shipments pass through the narrow waterway<\/strong>, making any disruption a major risk to global energy markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The impact is already being felt across the region. Reports indicated that Iraq declared force majeure on some crude exports<\/strong> as shipments through the Strait of Hormuz became severely disrupted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the surge in geopolitical risk, U.S. supply data provided a mildly bearish signal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Weekly figures from the American Petroleum Institute (API)<\/strong> showed that U.S. crude inventories increased by 5.6 million barrels<\/strong> in the week ending February 28, significantly above expectations for a build of around 2.2 million barrels<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the increase was still much smaller than the 11.4 million-barrel jump recorded the previous week<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Investors are now awaiting official inventory data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)<\/strong> later on Thursday, which could provide clearer insight into supply conditions in the world\u2019s largest oil consumer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With tensions still escalating and critical shipping routes under threat, oil markets remain highly sensitive to geopolitical developments, leaving prices vulnerable to further sharp moves in the days ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Oil prices jumped sharply in Asian trading on Thursday as the conflict in the Middle East entered its sixth day with no clear signs of de-escalation, fueling fears of significant supply disruptions from one of the world\u2019s most critical energy-producing regions. By 01:01 ET (06:01 GMT), Brent crude futures rose 4% to $84.64 per barrel, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":115753,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,6827,49,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-commodities-news","category-daily-economic-reports","category-economic-reports","category-market-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124402"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124403,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124402\/revisions\/124403"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Middle East tensions and Hormuz closure drive oil rally<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
U.S. inventory data offers limited relief<\/h3>\n\n\n\n