Oil Prices Surge as Iran Pledges to Keep Strait of Hormuz Closed
Oil prices rose to their highest level in over a week on Tuesday as concerns about Middle East supply disruptions persisted. The Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for global oil trade, will remain closed unless the US changes its behavior and accepts Iran's conditions to end the war, according to Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council.
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has already had a significant impact on oil supply, with traffic through the waterway dropping to just six vessels on Monday compared to an average of 11 over the past 10 days. Before the conflict began in February, daily traffic averaged between 125 and 140 vessels.
Meanwhile, Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis attacked a Saudi ship carrying military equipment in the Bab el-Mandeb strait, while sources reported a missile attack on a container ship off Pakistan. The US Energy Information Administration also warned that some Middle East producers may struggle to restore oil output to pre-conflict levels by the end of 2027.