ICE Brent Tops $85 for First Time Since June 15 as WTI Surges 8%
ICE Brent for September 2026 delivery cleared the $85 level early Tuesday, extending a recovery from June lows, while WTI July delivery climbed more than 8% in the same session.
ICE Brent crude for September 2026 delivery pushed above $85 per barrel in early Tuesday (2026-07-14) trading, reaching a level last traded on June 15, 2026, according to TASS trade data. The contract stood at $85.02 a barrel, up 2.04%, as of 12:16 a.m. GMT, with the advance extending to $85.64 — a 2.78% gain — in the hours that followed.6
WTI crude for July 2026 delivery moved more sharply, gaining 8.25% to $80.42 per barrel in the same session. By 12:35 UTC on Tuesday (2026-07-14), live market data showed ICE Brent at $86.68, up 0.64%, while WTI had eased to $80.11.6
The advance follows a recovery from late-June lows. On July 8 (2026-07-08), ICE Brent for September delivery crossed $78 per barrel for the first time since June 23, 2026, rising 4.42% to $77.44 before climbing to $78.16, a 5.39% single-session gain, TASS data showed. The benchmark has added roughly $8 per barrel since that initial breakout.5
Underlying the rally is a supply disruption that has persisted since February 28, 2026, when military action in the Middle East triggered the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz. EIA quarterly data documented the price surge that followed, noting the corridor accounts for approximately 20% of global oil supply flows.1
Strategic reserves have partially offset those losses. IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said, at the Group of Seven finance leaders meeting in Paris, that the release of strategic reserves had added 2.5 million barrels of oil per day to the market. He cautioned they were "not endless."2
US crude inventories have been tightening separately. Surging domestic fuel demand against stagnant production drove US crude stockpiles down at the fastest pace in nearly 40 years, OilPrice.com reported, a draw that has been reflected in WTI futures pricing.3
Diplomatic signals complicated the picture throughout the spring. Both Brent and WTI contracts gained more than 7% during the week of May 11, 2026 (2026-05-11) as hopes for a Hormuz resolution dimmed. When President Trump called off a planned military strike on Iran around May 18, 2026 (2026-05-18), Brent futures slipped toward $109 per barrel briefly before supply fears reasserted themselves. Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that the US had accepted language in proposed negotiation texts that would waive Iranian oil sanctions during talks, a concession that had briefly weighed on prices in mid-May.2,4
The diplomatic opening did not hold. On May 18, 2026 (2026-05-18), ICE Brent for July delivery settled $2.84 higher at $112.10 per barrel despite the diplomatic news, and WTI crude for June delivery closed up $3.24 at $108.66. Supply disruption fears outweighed the negotiating signal.2
Tuesday's (2026-07-14) move above $85 leaves ICE Brent around $25 below the levels traded during May 2026's disruption-driven peak. Strategic reserve drawdowns, the trajectory of US inventory declines, and any shift in the Iran negotiations will determine whether that gap narrows. The IEA has already flagged that the reserve buffer is finite — how quickly physical flows through the Strait normalize matters more than the diplomatic noise.2,5,3