MARKET NEWS

Oil prices were mixed today with benchmark Brent crude slightly higher and US crude prices down amid attacks on Gulf oil production and US President Donald Trump's call for global efforts to secure the Strait of Hormuz.

Brent crude futures were up 16 cents to $103.30 a barrel today, while US West Texas Intermediate crude was down $1.50, or 1.5%, to $97.21.

Both contracts have surged more than 40% this month to their highest since 2022, after the US-Israeli attacks on Iran prompted Tehran to halt shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for a fifth of global oil and LNG supplies.

Oil loading operations have resumed at the United Arab Emirates port of Fujairah, two sources told Reuters today, after it was halted earlier following a drone attack that triggered a fire in the emirate's petroleum industrial zone.

Fujairah, outside the Strait of Hormuz, is the outlet for about 1 million barrels per day of the UAE's flagship Murban crude oil - a volume equal to about 1% of world demand.

The war in the Middle East is creating the biggest oil supply disruption in history, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday, as major oil producers such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the UAE cut production.

Investors seem to recognise that if just two weeks of disruption at the Strait of Hormuz have inflicted this level of damage on production, exports and refining, the consequences of a prolonged conflict would be severe, especially as inventories are steadily depleted, said PVM analyst Tamas Varga.

"US strikes over the weekend on Kharg Island raised supply concerns, as most of Iran's oil exports pass through it," ING analysts said today.