Oil jumps over $100

Brent crude climbed above $100 a barrel on Monday after the United States said it would start blockading ships entering and leaving Iranian ports. (reuters.com) By 2204 Greenwich Mean Time on April 13, Brent was up 7.47% at $102.31 a barrel and United States West Texas Intermediate was up 8.14% at $104.43. United States Central Command said the blockade would begin at 10 a.m. Eastern Time on April 13 and cover all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports. (reuters.com, centcom.mil) The move followed weekend talks between Washington and Tehran that ended without a deal to stop the war. Reuters reported that traders were recalculating supply losses after the negotiations stalled and the blockade threat turned into an announced military action. (reuters.com) The Strait of Hormuz is the narrow waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, and it handles some of the world’s most concentrated energy traffic. The International Energy Agency says about 20 million barrels a day of oil, or roughly 25% of global seaborne oil trade, moves through the strait. (iea.org) The United States blockade is aimed at Iranian ports, not a blanket closure of the entire strait, but oil traders usually price the risk that military action spills into wider shipping disruption. The United States Energy Information Administration said in June 2025 that more than one-quarter of global seaborne oil trade and about one-fifth of global petroleum liquids consumption passed through Hormuz in 2024. (centcom.mil, eia.gov) Saudi Arabia said on Sunday that it had restored full pumping capacity on its East-West pipeline to about 7 million barrels a day after attacks during the Iran conflict. That line lets Saudi crude reach the Red Sea without using Hormuz, but Reuters said the market was still focused on the loss of up to 2 million barrels a day of Iranian-linked flows. (reuters.com, reuters.com) That helps explain why prices jumped without the kind of one-session panic seen at the start of some earlier Middle East shocks. CNBC reported on April 13 that some investors were treating the escalation as partly anticipated even as they moved into oil, gold and defense shares. (cnbc.com) Analysts told Reuters last week that the Iran war had already flipped expectations for 2026 from comfortable oversupply to a supply deficit. In that setup, any new threat to tanker traffic or export terminals can push prices higher because the buffer of spare barrels looks smaller. (reuters.com, eia.gov) The next test is whether ships keep moving near Iranian ports after the blockade starts and whether the fighting stays contained. For now, oil is back in triple digits because traders are paying for disruption risk, not waiting for barrels to go missing first. (centcom.mil, reuters.com)