Crude oil prices hit a six-week high on Monday as the U.S. markets were closed for Labor Day and as Iran boasted of striking energy facilities across the Middle East following more U.S. attacks over the weekend, including striking three Iranian oil tankers. Prices inched closer to $100 a barrel internationally.
“Strike our assets and you get struck,” Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said on Monday, in what appeared to be a response to U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s warning that Tehran’s oil fleet was “defenseless”.
There were no “closing” or “settlement” of West Texas Intermediate prices, but they were up $1.17 or 1.3% by mid-afternoon Monday at $92.65 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent crude, the global benchmark, settled at $97.31 a barrel with a gain of $1.03 or 1.1%. The more than $97 a barrel mark was the highest point since July 24 when it reached $98.06 a barrel.
The weekend attacks on Iranian tankers marked a major escalation of the war and also revealed how commercial oil tankers are now being deliberately used as instruments of reciprocal economic pressure.
On Saturday, U.S. Central Command (Centcom) reported that it had struck three Iranian oil tankers in response to the IRGC targeting two U.S. warships with ballistic missiles. The three tankers hit were M/T Downy, M/T Stark 1, and M/T Kylo, and were struck near Kharg Island, Jask, and in the Gulf of Oman, respectively. Following the attack, Admiral Brad Cooper said the message was clear: “If you shoot at two of our ships, we will impose an even higher economic cost —taking out three of yours.”
Natural gas prices slipped on Monday, settling at $2.966 MMBtu with a decline of $0.009 or 0.30%.
Because of the Labor Day holiday, Oklahoma energy stocks did not trade.
