Oil prices rose again on Tuesday as Iran launched fresh attacks on crude-producing neighbours.
Prices rebounded from the previous day’s sharp losses, which came after the head of the International Energy Agency said more stockpiles could be tapped if needed.
International benchmark Brent North Sea crude and the main US oil contract, West Texas Intermediate, were both up around two per cent.
“The longer the oil price stays above $100 per barrel, the louder the alarm bells for the market over inflation risks,” said Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell.
A new drone strike on Tuesday hit the Fujairah oil complex, which sits on the Gulf of Oman and enables the UAE to bypass the Strait of Hormuz for some exports.
Two drones targeted a major southern Iraqi oil field, an oil ministry spokesperson told AFP, after the second attack in four days.
Meanwhile, Israel said it had killed Iran’s national security chief as it launched a “wide-scale wave of strikes” in Tehran, alongside attacks on Hezbollah in Beirut.
“The next stage of the Iran-US war has seen both sides step up attacks on energy infrastructure,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at trading group XTB.
She added that concerns are “shifting from a shipping crisis caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz to an oil supply crisis, where energy infrastructure across the Gulf is a target.”
Trump has called for allies in Europe and elsewhere to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, saying at the weekend that securing the waterway “should have always been a team effort, and now it will be”.
However, the response has been lukewarm, with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz saying the war started by US-Israeli strikes on Iran was “not a matter for NATO”, while Britain, Spain, Poland, Greece and Sweden all distanced themselves from the calls.
Australia and Japan also opted not to join.