Houthi Blockade Drives Oil Prices to $100 per Barrel

Oil prices soared to $100.65 a barrel on Thursday, marking the first time since late May that Brent futures exceeded this milestone.

The surge was fueled by tensions in the Red Sea, where Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi group has declared a naval blockade on shipments from Saudi Arabia.

The Houthis have been targeting Saudi-linked tankers and have attacked two vessels, one of which was set ablaze.

Michelle Bockmann, a senior maritime intelligence analyst at Windward, said the Houthis are 'quite mercurial' and that there is no clarity on what the blockade means.

The analysts are watching to see which vessels are allowed to pass through the Bab el-Mandeb chokepoint, as this will indicate how the crude market trends.