US Strikes on Iranian Tankers Drive Brent Back Above $95 as Hormuz Clashes Resume
American military action against Iranian tankers has pushed ICE Brent front-month back above $95, ending a month of relative calm and reviving supply disruption fears through the strait.
NYMEX WTI crude front-month rose to $91.05 per barrel in early Asian trading on Wednesday (2026-09-02), up 0.92% on the session, as the United States and Iran traded fresh military strikes near the Strait of Hormuz. ICE Brent crude front-month gained 1.19% to $95.68, oilprice.com and freepressjournal.in reported.6,8
The move extended a 5.2% surge in WTI on Tuesday (2026-09-01). Rigzone reported American crude topped $90 for the first time since late July, after President Trump claimed US control over the Strait of Hormuz following fresh strikes on Iranian tankers. The back-to-back sessions ended roughly a month of relative calm, oilprice.com reported.7,86
The current escalation began Monday (2026-08-31), when the United States struck Iran's Larak Island near the strait. Brent futures climbed more than a dollar per barrel that day, and Iran issued a retaliation warning, Zee Business reported.5
Hormuz has been the conflict's central pressure point since at least mid-July. Iran struck two UAE tankers in the strait's southern lane on Tuesday (2026-07-14), sending ICE Brent crude front-month up 3% to above $86 per barrel in early European trading, oilprice.com reported. Oil extended July's rally to nearly 30% by Wednesday (2026-07-22), when Rigzone said the global benchmark settled at $94, its highest in more than a month, after briefly testing $95 during the session.2,3
Inventory data reinforced the latest move. The American Petroleum Institute reported a 2.6 million barrel draw in US crude stocks on Wednesday (2026-09-02), with additional barrels withdrawn from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, oilprice.com and freepressjournal.in reported. The API had separately estimated a 3.3 million barrel drawdown for the week ended July 24 (2026-07-24), news18.com reported.6,84
Current prices remain well below the conflict's initial shock. WTI closed at $111.54 per barrel and Brent settled at $109.03 on Thursday (2026-05-14), after Trump's Iran war speech triggered single-session gains of more than 11% and nearly 8% respectively, CNBC reported. That peak has not been retested.1
On Thursday (2026-05-14), Giles Alston, political risk analyst at Oxford Analytica, told CNBC's Squawk Box Asia that safe Hormuz passage had become "something for those who take oil through the Strait to sort out for themselves." The remark reflected a US posture that cargo owners and shippers have had to incorporate into every routing decision since.1
The Iranian rial has since added a separate dimension. The currency broke through the 2 million rial per dollar mark in August, hitting a record low, oilprice.com reported. Sustained economic deterioration narrows the regime's capacity to absorb the standoff's costs, though the direction of any resulting shift in Tehran's posture is unclear.6
With markets closed on Sunday (2026-09-06), ICE Brent crude front-month was last quoted at $94.97 per barrel and NYMEX WTI front-month at $91.22, holding the gains from the week's escalation.
Rigzone cautioned that "renewed US-Iran hostilities underscore the risk that further disruption could quickly push an already constrained market into a much tighter balance." Iran's retaliation threat is the immediate overhang — whether any strike hits tanker traffic or shore infrastructure will define how much further crude can run once trading resumes.7