{"id":841727,"date":"2026-09-09T12:28:32","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T12:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/841727\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T12:28:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T12:28:32","slug":"oil-hits-100-a-barrel-for-first-since-july-as-middle-east-conflict-intensifies-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/841727\/","title":{"rendered":"Oil hits $100 a barrel for first since July as Middle East conflict intensifies again"},"content":{"rendered":"

The price of oil breached the $100 threshold<\/a> Wednesday for the first time since July, as new flare-ups in the United States\u2019 war with Iran<\/a> stoked fresh concern for global energy markets.<\/p>\n

The spike came a day after the U.S. military said it destroyed five Iranian tankers in response to attempted missile attacks on a Navy warship. Tehran responded with attacks on U.S. ships and a base in Jordan, the latest bout of fighting in a conflict that remains unresolved after months of global economic disruption.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere new attacks by a Tehran-backed rebel group set oil facilities ablaze in Saudi Arabia and threatened a significant new escalation in that conflict.<\/p>\n

The international benchmark, Brent crude, rose above the symbolic $100 mark at a little after 3 a.m. ET, before pushing higher to nearly $101 later in the morning.<\/p>\n

While about 40% higher than prewar levels, Brent was still below the peak of $120 in the early days of the war. Since the start of the year, the benchmark is up by more than 65%.<\/p>\n

U.S. crude oil is also up by similar levels and just before 8 a.m. ET, it rose above $95 per barrel for the first time since June.<\/p>\n

Those prices are of significant concern to the White House and Republicans ahead of the midterm elections, with consumers facing higher prices as a result.<\/p>\n

Gas prices rose to $4.22 Wednesday, the highest since early June.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Oil exports from the Middle East have dwindled since the U.S. and Israel launched their war against Iran in February. A fifth of the world\u2019s oil supply had flowed through the Strait of Hormuz, the key waterway that has been throttled by Tehran in response.<\/p>\n

While the U.S. military has managed to restore some shipping traffic through Hormuz, other key trade routes have also faced disruption.<\/p>\n

Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have attacked tankers in the Red Sea. This week, the group launched attacks on Saudi energy facilities that set oil sites ablaze and threatened a significant expansion of its conflict with the key U.S. ally.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump claimed on social media<\/a> Monday that \u201coil prices will drop precipitously, like everything else is dropping (but more!), when we WIN the war with Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that prices could fall to as low as \u201ctwo dollars a gallon.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was little sign of that, or of a resolution to the war. <\/p>\n

Earlier in the week, commodities experts warned<\/a> that oil prices as measured by Brent could rise to $120 or even as high as $150 per barrel if the stalemate with Iran continues to drag on.<\/p>\n

Trump has shifted to a strategy of squeezing the Iranian economy with the U.S. maritime blockade, but recent days have seen a number of violent flare-ups.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The price of oil breached the $100 threshold Wednesday for the first time since July, as new flare-ups…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":841728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-841727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=841727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/841728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}