(Bloomberg) — Oil rose for a second day as traders weighed risks to Middle East supplies, with a critical Saudi Arabian pipeline still offline.
Brent gained toward $107 a barrel — climbing toward an intraday peak just below $110 touched on Friday, which was the highest price since May. The East-West pipeline — a workaround for Strait of Hormuz flows — was shut last week after attacks, with Saudi Aramco yet to say when it may restart. Riyadh is trying to raise shipments through the waterway further to compensate.
The conduit — which carries oil across the kingdom to the Red Sea coast — will be out of service for several weeks, the Associated Press reported on Monday, citing two regional officials. US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that he expected it to be back up and running “very soon.”
On the diplomatic front, Tehran said that there would be no talks with Washington until its conditions were met, according to Mohsen Rezaee, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, in a post on X. That followed comments from US President Donald Trump, who flagged potential progress on the war, saying the Islamic Republic “wants to make a deal, quickly and badly.”
“Crude is caught between physical realities that continue to point to lost supply and rhetoric pointing toward potential de-escalation,” said Rebecca Babin, senior energy trader at CIBC Private Wealth Group. “Ultimately, the market will put more weight on barrels and infrastructure than on rhetoric.”
Brent oil has rallied almost 76% this year, as the US-Iran war spread across the energy-rich Middle East, with shipping in the Hormuz waterway attacked and oil fields shut-in. The prolonged upheaval — together with the fallout from the Russia-Ukraine war — has boosted inflationary pressures, helping the US 10-year Treasury yield to top 5% for the first time since 2023.
Trump and Ukraine offered differing accounts on a potential halt to strikes on energy infrastructure. While the US leader said Moscow and Kyiv had agreed to stop such attacks — which have helped to boost diesel prices — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said no deal had been finalized.
Market metrics are signaling concern about tighter supplies. Brent’s prompt spread — the difference between its two nearest contracts — was $5.10 a barrel in backwardation, up from less than $2 about a month ago. That’s a bullish structure, in which the near-term price trades at a premium to later contracts.
In the Middle East, US forces are blockading Iran’s ports to raise the pressure on Tehran. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy said a tanker attempting to pass through a restricted zone in the southern Strait of Hormuz exploded after striking mines. US Central Command said the claim was false.
Investors are also tracking events in Yemen. Iranian-backed Houthis on Monday fired missiles and drones at civilian targets in the Saudi cities of Khamis Mushait, Abha and Taif, a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition posted on X.
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