![\"Forget](\"https:\/\/shipandbunker.cdn.speedyrails.net\/a\/img\/_asp_d6afe34881134d19842789dd7a5fe7d4.v.645.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tMeanwhile, Russia profits big-time from $100-plus crude: File Image\/Pixabay<\/p>\n
\u201c<\/p>\n \n\tNo one is going home short<\/p>\n Darrell Fletcher, Bannockburn Capital Markets<\/p>\n
\n\tFor once since the outbreak of the U.S.\/Iran war, traders on Friday displayed a nascent level of consistency in maintaining the sentiment, established in the previous session, that hostilities between the two countries \u2013 and the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz \u2013 would continue for longer than anticipated, thus preserving<\/a>\u00a0the upward trajectory of two key benchmarks.<\/p>\n
\n\tBrent rose 4.2 percent to settle above $112 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate settled above $99.<\/p>\n
\n\tEfforts to reach a ceasefire continued, while the U.S. and Israel bombed nuclear and steel facilities in Iran, and Iran retaliated across the Persian Gulf.<\/p>\n
\n\tDarrell Fletcher, managing director for commodities at Bannockburn Capital Markets, remarked, \u201cNo one is going home short while there are no clear signs of de-escalation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tMacquarie Group Ltd. estimated a 60 percent probability of the war wrapping up by end of March, but admitted that if a 40 percent chance came true of lasting through June, oil could reach $200 per barrel.<\/p>\n
\n\tA poll of 13 analysts by Reuters also saw oil rising<\/a>\u00a0to $200, if Iranian export facilities were damaged.<\/p>\n
\n\tAnother type of calculation was provided by the International Energy Agency: it estimated that the war had shrunk global oil supplies by around 11 million barrels per day (bpd) as of March 23.<\/p>\n
\n\tTo demonstrate how media is sending mixed signals about the war \u2013 as well as showing how impossible it is to get a firm grip on what\u2019s really going on with its effects, Dan Pickering, chief investment officer of Pickering Energy Partners, said<\/a>, “You could put on two different hats about crude today: ‘Why is it so high? Because this war is going to be over soon.’<\/p>\n
\n\t“The other would be, ‘Why is it so low, when 20 percent of global oil supply is bottlenecked behind the Strait of Hormuz?'”<\/p>\n