The Price of Brent Crude Oil Reached a One-and-a-Half-Month High

During trading on Monday, September 7, the exchange price of the benchmark North Sea brand Brent oil reached a one-and-a-half month high. This is evidenced by Investing data.

By 13:35 Moscow time, commodity quotations exceeded $96.6 per barrel. The increase to the closing level of the previous trading session by that time was one percent. At its peak, quotes reached $97.94, reaching a new high since July 24.

Experts associate the rise in oil prices primarily with another escalation in the Middle East. The resumption of mutual attacks between the United States and Iran has increased stock market participants’ concerns about the risks of a shortage in the global supply of raw materials and the threat of delaying the opening of a key logistics artery—the Strait of Hormuz.

An additional threat to the global oil market has become the increasing frequency of attacks on tankers in the war-torn region. On Saturday, September 5, the US military attacked three Iranian ships carrying raw materials. In response, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy attacked a similar number of tankers attempting to cross the Strait of Hormuz.

Against the backdrop of continued tension in the region, a number of energy giants began to think about alternative routes for the delivery of raw materials. The construction of the Basra-Hadis pipeline is being considered as one of the options. In the future, explained the official representative of the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, Salim al-Rikabi, it is planned to extend it to the Turkish port of Ceyhan and the Syrian Baniyas.