By Barbara Kollmeyer

G7 finance leaders reportedly due to discuss possible joint release of reserves

This video grab taken from UGC images posted on social media on March 7 and 8, 2026 shows fire erupting at an oil depot in Iran’s capital Tehran. Oil prices soared to levels not seen since 2022 on Monday.

Oil prices surged above $100 a barrel on Monday to levels not seen since 2022 as the Iran conflict showed no signs of de-escalating, and more major oil producers began cutting oil output.

West Texas Intermediate crude (CL.1) (CLJ26) climbed nearly 12% to $101.82 a barrel, after soaring as much as 30%, near $120 a barrel, on Sunday.

WTI climbed a record 36% last week, and saw its highest finish since 2023, at $90 a barrel, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Global benchmark Brent (BRN00) (BRNK26) rose over 15% to $106.76 a barrel, after rising 27% last week, its best weekly performance on record, with a finish of $92.69 its best since September 2023.

The comparison isn’t apples-to-apples as the WTI front month is for April while the lead contract for Brent is May.

Those prices pared some early Monday after the Financial Times reported that G7 finance ministers will later in the day discuss a possible joint release of petroleum from reserves coordinated by the International Energy Agency. The IEA didn’t immediately return a message.

With the Strait of Hormuz nearly closed and lack of storage for crude, state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corp. on Saturday said it had “implemented a precautionary reduction on crude production and refining,” while United Arab Emirates said production would be lowered.

In Iran on Sunday, Israel launched strikes at four Tehran oil storage facilities, creating a massive, toxic plume of smoke over the city, with Iran hitting a water desalination plant in Bahrain. Later in the day, Iranian state TV announced Mojtaba Khamenei – the son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a strike last weekend – had been named the country’s new supreme leader.

“He is clearly unacceptable to both the U.S. and Israel and reflects the hardest of lines from the regime rather than any possible compromise, Venezuela style,” said Michael Every, senior global strategist at Rabobank, in a note to clients.

Investors will be closely watching the reaction of the U.S. administration as oil breaches $100 a barrel, said a team at RBC Capital Markets led by Helima Croft, head of global commodity strategy.

“We believe that duration will be the determining factor of the ultimate price trajectory for energy. With no clear definition of what winning looks like, it is hard to forecast whether this will be a multiweek or multimonth conflict. Given the course of events, it is unclear whether the administration built an exit on its way into this latest military entanglement,” said RBC’s strategists.

In a social-media post Sunday, Trump said oil prices “will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over,” adding that price hikes are “a very small price to pay” for peace.

Mike Murphy contributed to this report

-Barbara Kollmeyer

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

03-09-26 0440ET

Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.