Oil prices surged on Monday as escalating conflict in the Middle East and threats to energy shipments through the Strait of Hormuz heightened fears of supply disruptions.
International benchmark Brent crude traded at $105.63 per barrel at 9.37 a.m. local time (0637 GMT), up 14.8% from the previous close of $92.02.
US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) increased 14.5% to $101.81 per barrel, compared with $88.88 in the previous session.
Brent reached $114.30, its highest level since June 2022, during the day on Monday.
The sharp rise in oil prices has been driven by escalating conflicts in the Middle East and growing concerns about supply disruptions due to threats to energy shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.
The sharp rise follows last week's rally, when Brent gained about 28%, marking its fastest weekly increase since early April 2020, when markets were roiled by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Analysts noted that Brent last traded at similar levels at the start of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022.
Rising tensions in the Middle East and growing risks to energy shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, a key artery for global oil trade, have fueled concerns about potential supply disruptions.
US President Donald Trump, speaking to The Times of Israel after Mojtaba Khamenei was selected as Iran's new supreme leader, declined to give a timeline for ending the attacks on Iran.
Trump said that he will make the decision to end the US-Israeli war on Iran mutually with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"I think it's mutual…a little bit. We've been talking. I'll make a decision at the right time, but everything's going to be taken into account," Trump said when asked if Netanyahu would have a say in the decision.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Friday that Washington expected the conflict to last four to six weeks.
Meanwhile, oil production in Iraq has dropped sharply following the US-Israeli attacks on Iran.
Iraq's oil production has dropped by nearly 60% as the US-Israeli war on Iran entered its ninth day, according to an Iraqi official on Sunday.
Production currently stands at about 1.3 million barrels per day, down from around 3.3 million barrels before the outbreak of the war, Kazem Abdul Hassan Karim, assistant director general at the Department of Fields and Licensing Affairs in the Iraqi Oil Ministry, said in a statement.
A drone attack involving two unmanned aircraft targeted the Burjesia oil area southwest of Basra province in southern Iraq, causing material damage to warehouses belonging to a foreign logistics services company, Karim added.
He said the attack did not cause direct damage to oil facilities or production fields.
Iraq had earlier announced plans to cut crude output after exports fell following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi air defenses intercepted and destroyed a drone targeting the Shaybah oilfield located in the Rub' al-Khali (Empty Quarter) desert in the country's southeast, the Defense Ministry said late Sunday.
A ministry spokesman said on the US social media company X's platform that two drones were also shot down north of the capital Riyadh after attempting to target the area.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf warned Sunday that ongoing US-Israeli attacks on Iran could lead to halting oil production and exports.
"(US President Donald) Trump said oil prices would not rise much, but they did, and now he says a correction will happen soon," Qalibaf said on US social media company X.
"If the war continues in this way, there will be no path left for selling oil or producing it," he warned.
By Ebru Sengul Cevrioglu
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr
