\n<\/p>\n
Oil prices soared more than 6 percent on worries about prolonged supply disruption in the Strait of Hormuz and fears of a lengthy US siege of Iranian ports, settling at their highest levels in weeks.<\/p>\n
US crude settled up 6.95 percent at $106.88 per barrel on Wednesday, and Brent crude, the international benchmark, was up 6.08 percent, or $6.77, at $118.03 after earlier touching its highest price since June 2022, the Reuters news agency reports.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Brent crude futures for June continued to rise on Thursday to $119.94 per barrel as of 00:57 GMT, and US West Texas Intermediate futures were at $107.51, Reuters said.<\/p>\n Oil prices continue to surge with no resolution in sight to the two-month-long US-Israel war on Iran, and as supplies of fuel remain snarled in the Strait of Hormuz, where Iranian forces have imposed a blockade on the transit of vessels and the US is besieging Iranian ports and shipping.<\/p>\n A White House official said on Wednesday that US President Donald Trump had asked US oil companies about ways to mitigate the impact of a potentially months-long siege of Iranian ports.<\/p>\n The president and the oil executives \u201cdiscussed the steps President Trump has taken to \u2060alleviate global oil markets and steps we could take to continue the current blockade for months if needed and minimize impact on American consumers,\u201d the White House official said.<\/p>\n News of Trump\u2019s talks with oil executives triggered concerns in the market of an extended disruption to oil supplies, Reuters reports, and came as the Pentagon revealed for the first time that the war on Iran has cost the US military $25bn so far.<\/p>\n \u201cProspects for any near-term resolution to the Iran conflict or a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz remain dim,\u201d IG market analyst Tony Sycamore said in a note on the current situation.<\/p>\n Al Jazeera\u2019s Barnaby Lo, reporting from Seoul, South Korea, said almost the entire Asia Pacific region is dependent on oil imports and much of those supplies come from the Middle East.<\/p>\n \u201cSo with the price of Brent crude touching $120 a barrel, there is no doubt that is going to have a huge impact on the region. The Asian Development Bank already cutting its growth forecast for the region from 5.1 percent to 4.7 percent this year,\u201d Lo said.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now millions if not billions across the region are already suffering from elevated fuel prices as well as higher prices for basic goods and commodities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n President Trump on Wednesday also welcomed the announced withdrawal of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), saying, \u201cI think it\u2019s great\u201d.<\/p>\n The UAE\u2019s President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan was \u201cvery smart\u201d and probably wanted to go his \u201cown way\u201d, Trump said.<\/p>\n \u201cI think ultimately it\u2019s a good thing for getting the price of gas down, getting oil down, getting everything down,\u201d Trump added.<\/p>\n The UAE announced on Tuesday that it would leave OPEC and the broader OPEC+ alliance effective on May 1.<\/p>\n Experts had expected the move as the UAE\u2019s decision to leave the cartel comes after years of open dissatisfaction with OPEC\u2019s policy of capping members\u2019 production as a way to control prices and stabilise the market.<\/p>\n Experts told Al Jazeera the UAE\u2019s departure is unlikely to have an immediate impact on the market because the UAE\u2019s exports, like those of all its neighbouring countries, are currently constrained by Iran\u2019s control of the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n Although the UAE\u2019s exit from OPEC would allow it to raise production after exports restart, analysts say that is unlikely to affect market fundamentals this year, especially with the Strait of Hormuz closure and other production disruptions from the war.<\/p>\n \u201cGulf countries, including the UAE, will take months to return to pre-war production volumes,\u201d Wood Mackenzie analysts said in a note, Reuters reports.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Oil prices soared more than 6 percent on worries about prolonged supply disruption in the Strait of Hormuz and fears of a lengthy US siege of Iranian ports, settling at their highest levels in weeks. US crude settled up 6.95 percent at $106.88 per barrel on Wednesday, and Brent crude, the international benchmark, was up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
\u2018Getting oil down, getting everything down\u2019<\/h3>\n
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