Brent crude rises above $100 a barrel as Middle East conflict intensifies

Brent crude rises above $100 a barrel as Middle East conflict intensifies.

Key points

• Since the Iran war began on February 28, Brent has surged as high as $126.41 a barrel, a peak reached on April 30.
• Follow Dawn Business on X, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook for insights on business, finance and tech from Pakistan and throughout the world.
• A growing number of banks, including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and HSBC, have raised their crude cost forecasts in recent days.
• This week, attacks by Houthis on Saudi energy facilities set oil installations ablaze, threatening a significant expansion of the conflict.

Brent crude rises above $100 a barrel as Middle East conflict intensifies. Reuters Published September 9, 2026 Updated September 9, 2026 02: 18pm. Join our Whatsapp Channel. Add Dawn as a trusted source.

Benchmark Brent crude oil futures rose past $100 a barrel on Wednesday, hitting a more than six-week high and breaching the symbolic threshold for the first time since July 24 as intensifying conflict in the Middle East heightened reservations concerning oil flows from the region.

After earlier touching $100.19, while US West Texas Intermediate crude was up $1.49, or 1.60pc, at $94.52 a barrel, brent crude futures were up $2.01, or 2.05 per cent, at $99.93 a barrel by 0802 GMT.

Brent crude rates have risen by a quarter since early last month as hopes fade for a permanent resolution to the six-month-old US-Iran conflict.

In practice, the attacks additionally threaten crude shipments via the Red Sea. It has been a key alternative route to the crucial Strait of Hormuz, where oil flows have been severely curtailed since the February 28 start of the Iran war.

"Market participants appear to be pricing in a more prolonged conflict in the Middle East as well as the risk that the latest escalation in military strikes disrupts oil flows from the Middle East, " remarked Hamad Hussain, senior climate and commodities economist at Capital Economics.

"The key risk is whether the recent attacks on oil tankers lead to fewer ship-to-ship transfers taking place in the Gulf of Oman, which have so far played a key role in providing oil to global markets and keeping a lid on prices."

Notably, a growing number of banks, including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and HSBC, have raised their crude cost forecasts in recent days.

Although more lately it had fallen below 2 million bpd, in the week before a resumption in fighting on August 30, roughly 8 million to 9 million bpd had flowed through Hormuz, double the previous week's volume, according to Rystad Energy's Chief Economist Claudio Galimberti.

"I think the market is trying to treat this rise in energy rates as a one-off. It's not. This is structural. It's not going away, and it's part of what I would argue as a security premium. And it's only going to obtain bigger, " stated Jeffrey Currie, co-chairman at Abaxx Markets.

While non-Opec oil producers including the United States, Canada and Guyana have ramped up output, the International Energy Agency remarked last month it anticipated global oil supply would fall this year by 4.3 million bpd, or regarding 4pc.

Taken together, the developments around brent crude rises above $100 a barrel as Middle East conflict intensifies point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.