WTI Oil Surges 7% Amid Escalating Middle East Tensions
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil prices surged nearly 7% on Wednesday as tensions in the Middle East continued to escalate. The sharp rebound comes after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched missiles at a US military base in Jordan, marking the end of a brief pause in fighting.
US President Donald Trump later threatened retaliatory strikes against Iran, while Washington announced new sanctions targeting eight tankers and ten entities connected to Iranian oil shipments. Meanwhile, data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed that crude oil inventories fell by 7.167 million barrels last week, much more than the expected 2.5 million-barrel decline.
Supply risks are also spreading to the Red Sea, with Reuters reporting that Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis are considering charging commercial ships using the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The latest developments dampened hopes that shipping through the Strait of Hormuz would normalise anytime soon, with oil prices expected to remain volatile.