Morning Edition · Thursday, July 23, 2026Published at 1:33 AM EDT · New York
Oil Climbs Past $94 as Houthis Strike Saudi Tankers and US Bombs Iran for a 12th Day
Brent settled up 3.4 percent at $94.07 and rose again Thursday after a projectile struck a tanker off Saudi Arabia, with two shipping chokepoints now disrupted by attacks.
Crude prices advanced again on Thursday as the war between the United States and Iran spread to the sea lanes that carry much of the world's oil. Yemen's Houthi movement said it attacked two Saudi Arabian oil tankers, the Encelia and the Layla, in the Red Sea, part of a maritime embargo it declared on July 20 against vessels serving Saudi ports, according to the Financial Times. A Saudi news agency confirmed one of the two vessels was hit, Dawn reported.
Brent crude settled up 3.4 percent at $94.07 a barrel on Wednesday and the US benchmark closed 2.9 percent higher at $86.83, then both rose further Thursday after an unidentified projectile struck a tanker off Saudi Arabia and US President Donald Trump threatened to bomb Iranian infrastructure in response to any attack on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. The Houthis, as Euronews reported, framed the blockade as retaliation for a Saudi siege on Yemeni ports and a strike on Sanaa's airport.
Two waterways are now disrupted at once. Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab al-Mandeb strait fell sharply this week, and separately Ukrainian drone attacks halted loadings at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium's Black Sea terminal, which handles about 1.58 million barrels a day and 80 percent of Kazakhstan's crude exports, according to S&P Global. The Israeli financial daily Globes reported that Iran warned it would strike the power supply of Washington's regional allies if its own plants were hit, a threat it published Thursday.
Part of a tracked trend
Middle East War Premium Returns to Oil
Renewed US-Iran conflict reinstates a geopolitical risk premium in crude that reverses the earlier de-escalation slide, feeding energy-driven inflation and redistributing income toward oil producers each time brinkmanship flares.
- If true, who benefits
Oil producers, tanker owners and marine insurers who gain pricing power from a rebuilt risk premium, plus the Houthi movement and Tehran, which demonstrate they can tax Saudi shipping at will.
- The nuance
Independent maritime sources confirm only the Encelia was struck near Jizan; the Houthi claim of hitting a second tanker, the Layla, and the reach of their declared blockade remain unverified.
An open-source-intelligence read of how likely this story is true with its real nuance, not a judgment of any outlet. It assesses the claim, weighing independent and adversarial reporting. How we label confidence.
What this means
A geopolitical risk premium is being rebuilt into crude through the supply channel rather than through demand. When exporters and insurers must route around Hormuz, Bab al-Mandeb and now the Black Sea at the same time, the marginal barrel costs more to move, and that feeds directly into headline inflation for energy-importing economies. Oil producers and tanker owners gain pricing power, while airlines, manufacturers and central banks fighting inflation lose. Every fresh strike on infrastructure widens the premium.
What to watch
- Whether Saudi Arabia suspends Red Sea shipments outright, which would force more crude onto the longer route around Africa and lift freight and insurance costs.
- Trump's threat to hit Iranian power plants and bridges, because a strike on civilian energy infrastructure is the step Tehran says would trigger attacks on Gulf oil and electricity facilities.
Observations to monitor, not financial advice.
Synthesized from: Financial Times · Dawn · Euronews · Globes
More from this edition
- US Strikes Iran for 12th Consecutive Day as Tehran Hits American Bases in Kuwait
- Oil Shock Revives Fed Rate-Hike Bets, Lifting Yields and Pressuring Global Stocks
- Bitcoin Falls Below $65,500 as Oil, Yields and a Regulatory Setback Weigh on Crypto
- Alphabet and Tesla Fall as AI Spending Surges, Reviving the Power-Supply Question
- Modi Faces Farmer Backlash as India Weighs a Trade Deal at the Center of Trump's Tariff Push
- Asian Governments Race to Shockproof Energy Supply as Hormuz Risk Deepens
- Europe's Heatwave Turns Deadly as Wildfires Spread Across France, Italy and Spain
- Ukrainian Drones Halt a Major Oil Route as Both Sides Widen Strikes on Energy
- Indian Stocks Fall a Fourth Day on Oil, but Bank and Consumer Earnings Hold Up
- Modi Orders Fast-Track Courts for Exam-Paper Leaks as Youth Protests Spread
- Guyana Ferry Disaster Leaves About 100 Feared Dead as Venezuela Quake Toll Passes 5,300