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

 Benchmark Brent crude oil futures rose past $100 a barrel on Wednesday, breaching the symbolic barrier for the first ‌time since July 24 as intensifying conflict in the Middle ​East fuelled ⁠growing concern about oil flows from the ‌region.

Brent crude futures rose $2.15, ‌or 2.2%, to $100.07 a barrel by 0721 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate crude was up $1.70, or 1.83%, at $94.73 ‌a barrel.

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

This week, attacks by Iran-backed Houthis on Saudi energy facilities set oil installations ablaze, threatening a significant expansion of the conflict.

The Houthi attacks could threaten ​crude shipments via the Red Sea, which has been ‌a key alternative route to the crucial Strait of Hormuz, where crude flows have been severely curtailed since the February ⁠28 start of the Iran war.

Trucks explode as they burn, during what the Houthis say was an attack targeting trucks coming from Saudi territory, in Al Wadiah on the Saudi-Yemen border. Reuters

A growing number of banks, including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and HSBC, have raised their ​crude ‌price forecasts in recent days.

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, although more recently it had fallen below ‌2 million bpd.

While non-OPEC oil producers including the United States, Canada and Guyana have ramped up output, ⁠the International Energy Agency said last month it ​expected global oil supply would fall this year by 4.3 million bpd, or about 4%.

Reuters