File photo: Oil tanker passing through the Strait of Hormuz, December 21, 2018.
Hamad Mohammed | Reuters
Crude oil prices extended their rise on Tuesday, rising for a third day in a row and hovering at a six-week high on concerns about escalating tensions in the Middle East following strikes by the United States and Iran over the weekend.
International benchmark futures brent crude oil Prices for November delivery rose 0.20% to $97.20 per barrel. us West Texas Intermediate Futures In October, it rose 1.07% to $92.56 per barrel.
brent
The US military attacked three Iranian oil tankers on Saturday after Iran fired ballistic missiles at two naval warships. In a statement on Saturday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry denounced the attack on the merchant ship as a “war crime” and an act of “economic warfare.”
“This seems like a major escalation and tensions are rising again,” said David Morrison, senior market analyst at Trade Nation, noting that U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright has said reaching a deal to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons may prove impossible.
Retaliatory strikes over the weekend also contributed to the rise in gas prices, hitting record highs.
Tensions between Washington and Tehran continued to rise. “If you attack our assets, you will be attacked too,” Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf wrote in a post to X on Monday.
This was in response to a post by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who wrote that the US would “destroy (and sink)” Iranian oil tankers if Iran fired on US ships.
Goldman Sachs on Monday raised its price forecasts for Brent and WTI by $5 to $85 and $80 per barrel, respectively, for December 2026 and $80 and $75 per barrel, respectively, for 2027.
The bank expects transport disruptions in the Middle East to continue until 2027, with production gradually recovering by the second half of 2027. “Markets are increasingly pricing in a protracted Middle East conflict,” Goldman said, adding that Persian Gulf to China crude oil tanker rates for the second quarter of 2027 now factor in shipping disruptions lasting into that period.
“If we win the war with Iran, oil prices will plummet,” President Trump said in a post in the United States on Monday.
—CNBC’s Greg Iacurci contributed to this report.
