Oil Prices Reach 3-Month High Amid Tensions
On Thursday, global oil benchmarks posted modest gains, pushing prices to their highest levels in three months. At 16:52 ET (20:52 GMT), Brent crude futures for November increased 0.3% to $95.88 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures for October rose 0.8% to $91.74 a barrel. These moves extended a strong weekly rally, with Brent up 8.3% and WTI up 9.8% over the past seven days.
The price uplift coincided with heightened geopolitical friction between the United States and Iran. After a series of U.S. strikes on Iranian air‑defence, radar and communications sites, Tehran retaliated with drone and missile attacks on U.S. bases in regional allies, including reported strikes on bases in Kuwait. President Donald Trump signalled a shift from direct military action to economic pressure, while Vice President JD Vance noted that oil flow through the Strait of Hormuz had fallen to 15 million barrels per day on Wednesday, down from the pre‑conflict level of 20 million barrels.
Domestically, U.S. diesel prices reached a new all‑time high. GasBuddy data showed the national average diesel price at $5.820 per gallon, with AAA reporting a slightly lower figure of $5.7832 per gallon. The same AAA data indicated the national average gasoline price rose to $4.1436 per gallon, up from $3.1903 a year earlier. Vice President Vance attributed the surge to Iranian attacks on commercial shipping, stating that without U.S. actions the gasoline price could have been “much, much higher.”
U.S. crude inventories delivered a bullish surprise. Commercial crude stocks fell by 4.5 million barrels last week, marking the first decline in five weeks and contradicting analysts’ expectations of a modest rise. Product inventories presented a mixed picture: gasoline stocks dropped by 1.2 million barrels, while distillate inventories—including diesel and heating oil—rose by roughly 800,000 barrels.
Attention also turned to OPEC+. The producer group is expected to leave its October oil‑output policy unchanged after completing the scheduled unwinding of a 1.65 million‑barrel‑per‑day layer of cuts. OPEC+ had previously raised September output quotas by 188,000 barrels per day.