Oil Prices Surge on Renewed Middle East Tensions

Oil prices rose on Wednesday as doubts about a U.S.-Iran peace deal and attacks on two ships fueled concerns about disruptions to Middle East supplies, although industry data showed swelling inventories of U.S. crude.

Brent futures were up $0.75 or 0.84% at $89.66 a barrel by 0553 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude climbed $0.72 or 0.87% to $83.92.

The rise in oil prices followed Tuesday's increases of more than $1 for the highest closes of both contracts since July 31.

Priyanka Sachdeva, head of market insights for Phillip Nova in Singapore, said 'The Middle East is increasingly becoming a seesaw between 'deal' and 'war', keeping oil prices swinging like a pendulum between $70 and $90 a barrel.'