Brent crude futures rose 78 cents, or 1% to $78.8 a barrel by 0054 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were up 74 cents, or 1.01%, at $74.26 a barrel.
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The U.S. military said it was launching fresh strikes on Iran aimed at keeping the critical Strait of Hormuz open to traffic, hours after President Donald Trump declared that an interim agreement to end the war was “over”.
The rush of oil that passed through the strait in recent weeks is over for now, with shipowners expected to take a more cautious stance, IG analyst Tony Sycamore said in a note.
The U.S. said its latest round of attacks was in response to Tuesday’s assault on three tankers transiting the strait. The U.S. attacks rattled several cities along Iran’s southern coast and left some areas without power.
Iran said on Wednesday it attacked U.S. military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait in response to earlier U.S. strikes on infrastructure.
Reporting by Sam Li and Lewis Jackson; Editing by Nia Williams and Tom Hogue
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Source: Original Article
