Shafaq News
Oil prices rosemore than 1% on Thursday after the U.S. carried out fresh strikes on Iran,denting hopes for talks to end their war and for the full reopening of theStrait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for one-fifth of pre-war global oil supplies.
Brent crudefutures rose 86 cents, or 1.1%, to $78.88 a barrel by 0352 GMT. U.S. WestTexas Intermediate crude futures were up 85 cents, or 1.2%, at $74.37 abarrel.
Both crudebenchmarks, WTI and Brent, rose more than a dollar in post-settlement trade on Wednesday after the U.S. military began launching fresh strikes on Iran.
Before that,the benchmarks had settled at their highest in over two weeks after U.S.President Donald Trump threatened new attacks on Iran.
"Fresh USstrikes on Iran pushed oil higher this morning, with the latest escalationundermining confidence in the fragile ceasefire," said ING analysts in aclient note.
The U.S.military said it completed strikes on Iran aimed at keeping the critical Straitof Hormuz open to traffic, hours after President Donald Trump declared that aninterim agreement to end the war was "over".
U.S. forcesstruck approximately 90 Iranian military targets, which included air defensesystems, coastal surveillance assets, missile and drone storage sites, naval capabilities, and military logistics infrastructure along Iran'scoastline, U.S. Central Command said.
Iran earliersaid on Wednesday it attacked U.S. military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait inresponse to earlier U.S. strikes on infrastructure.
A fifth ofglobal oil and liquefied natural gas supplies traversed the Strait of Hormuzprior to the Iran war, and Tehran's control of the waterway has been its mainleverage in a conflict that started with U.S. and Israeli airstrikesagainst Iran on February 28.
The rush of oilthat passed through the strait in recent weeks is over for now, withshipowners expected to take a more cautious stance, IG analyst Tony Sycamore said in a note.
Despite theinterim peace deal between Washington and Tehran, "significantgeopolitical risks remain," said DBS Bank's head of energy research SuvroSarkar, expecting conflict uncertainty to support prices in the near term.
"Webelieve Iran has every incentive to prolong these discussions,suggesting that the war risk premium in oil prices may not fully dissipate forseveral months, leading to continued volatility despite an overall downwardprice trajectory in the medium term."
(REUTERS)
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