Brent oil crosses $100 for first time in two months as Middle East conflict flares

Brent oil crosses $100 for first time in two months as Middle East conflict flares Jake Conley · Breaking Business News Reporter Wed, September 9, 2026 at 3:37 PM GMT+2 5 min read CL=F Brent oil prices crossed $100 for the first time in roughly two months on Wednesday as a resurgence in the US-Iran conflict and worries over disruptions throughout the global oil complex pushed prices past the triple-digit mark. Futures on Brent crude ( BZ=F ), the international benchmark, rose by roughly 3% on Wednesday to cross over $100 per barrel, while those on US benchmark WTI crude ( CL=F ) gained a bit more than 2% to push past $95. The conflict in the Middle East, now in its seventh month, has continued to snarl the flow of energy products out of the Persian Gulf as Washington and Tehran remain at war, with shipping through the Strait of Hormuz still constrained by the threat of violence.

Sending prices higher on Wednesday was news that the US military overnight struck five Iranian crude oil tankers in what US Central Command said was a response to attempts by Iran to strike US Navy carriers in the region. The move by the US marks the second time in as many days American forces have targeted Iran's shipping sector. Read more:  How oil price shocks ripple through your wallet, from gas to groceries Over the past two weeks, the US and Iran have firmly returned to a more kinetic posture, exchanging tit-for-tat strikes after roughly a month of negotiations that quieted the region.

Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which before the war was responsible for roughly 20% of crude oil flows, has remained severely constrained as shippers weigh the benefits of shipping their product against the risk of harm to crew and cargo. "Oil investors are expressing their view about the impact of the latest bout of escalation in the Middle East in an unambiguous way," said Tamas Varga, an analyst at PVM Oil Associates. "They are voting with their dollar, and this vote strongly indicates that unless the Strait of Hormuz re-opens, and oil starts flowing again uninterruptedly, supply will not be aligned with demand in the foreseeable future.

" At the same time, the global energy market is facing pressures on multiple fronts outside Iran. To the west, attacks in recent days by the Houthi militant group on Saudi Arabian energy infrastructure have resurfaced worries that the several million barrels per day the kingdom is moving through the Red Sea — a key workaround for the Strait of Hormuz — could be threatened. To the north, strikes by the Ukrainian military inside Russia have effectively targeted Moscow's refining sector, shuttering capacity in a crucial market that, prior to 2022, was responsible for roughly 10% of the world's diesel exports.

And to the east, data shows early signs that China — the world's swing buyer of crude oil — has begun to step up its crude imports. The country's slowdown in import volumes throughout the war has acted as a key lever to keep global pricing contained. Story Continues If strikes continue to significantly disrupt energy flows, oil futures could move as high as $120 per barrel, Goldman Sachs strategists warned on Monday, which would mark a higher price than the peak of March's wartime highs.

The bank's base case remains that Brent and WTI futures trade at $85 and $80, respectively, in December. Vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, September 2, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer · Reuters / REUTERS "The intensity and geographical breadth of tanker attacks — a highly uncertain variable — will remain a key driver of whether Gulf oil exports recover and how quickly," wrote the Goldman strategists, led by head of oil strategist Daan Struyven.

In the market for refined products, the pressure is even greater, as global stocks remain "worryingly low," per Rabobank global strategist Michael Every, and crack spreads — the margins refiners can capture for turning oil into derivative products — hold at all-time highs. Even as exports of crude oil from the Persian Gulf have returned to roughly half to two-thirds of their pre-war levels as Gulf nations have utilized pipelines, dark transits, and other methods for moving oil, the global refining complex is running against full capacity. Gasoline prices averaged $4.

22 per gallon in the US on Wednesday, per AAA, while diesel held at $5. 94 after already crossing a previous all-time high. Diesel is critical to global goods movement, and any price increases flow through to businesses, while gasoline prices put pressure on an American wallet already feeling the stress of above-target inflation.

In Washington, sticky prices at the pump represent an acute political pressure ahead of the midterms, coming only two months after voters paid the highest Labor Day gasoline prices on record. Analysts who watch the oil sector point to a growing sense of déjà vu in an oil market that has been awaiting an end to what was expected to be a short conflict, now closer to the one-year mark than to its beginning. "The duration of the conflict … has extended substantially beyond what we penciled in back in May, when we expected the Strait to reopen in June," JPMorgan analysts, led by head of global commodities strategy Natasha Kaneva, wrote on Wednesday.

"Importantly, the market has been making much the same mistake, repeatedly pushing normalization out by a few months, only to roll it forward again as time passes. " Jake Conley is a breaking news reporter covering US equities for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on X at @byjakeconley or email him at jake.

conley@yahooinc. com .