Overview
- Brent briefly neared $120 before settling near $107, with WTI around $104, as the Strait of Hormuz—normally carrying roughly a fifth of seaborne oil—remains largely impassable to tankers.
- G7 finance ministers are holding an emergency call to discuss market stabilization, including a potential coordinated release of strategic petroleum reserves reported by the Financial Times.
- Gulf producers including Kuwait and the UAE have trimmed output as storage fills, and analysts warn further curtailments could be imminent; LNG flows from Qatar face weeks-to-months disruptions.
- Global markets slid sharply, with steep declines across Asian and European equity indexes and jumps in gas prices, while motorists face rising pump costs and fuel queues reported in parts of the UK and higher averages in the US.
- Officials sought to reassure consumers, with President Donald Trump calling the spike a short-term cost and Energy Secretary Chris Wright saying the surge should last weeks and that the US is not targeting Iran’s energy sector.