Oil at $100 as Trump says US ‘has plenty of time’ to fight Iran
The tanker Callisto remains anchored at Sultan Qaboos Port in Muscat, Oman, on March 12, 2026, as traffic decreases in the Strait of Hormuz amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran.
Benoît Tessier | Reuters
Global benchmark Brent crude oil remained above $100 on Friday morning as the US-Iran war approached its third week.
until 5:40 ET, Brent futures It traded at $101.15 a barrel, up 0.7%, retreating from earlier gains. WE West Texas Intermediate crude futures It rose 0.1% to $95.87 per barrel, paring previous gains.
Crude oil prices
Oil prices rose for another week, with Brent futures rising more than 9%. This follows a 27.9% rise in oil prices last week, marking the biggest weekly gain since the Covid-19 outbreak in 2020. WTI futures, which saw its best week since 1983 last week, are on track to complete this week with a 5.8% increase.
Investors continue to monitor developments in the Middle East, where the US and Israel’s war with Iran will soon extend into its third week. Overnight, President Donald Trump hinted that an end to the conflict was not imminent.
“We have unparalleled firepower, unlimited ammunition and plenty of time,” he said on Friday, before urging his followers to “watch what happens” to the Iranian regime.
Friday morning Axios reported Trump claimed that Iran was “about to surrender” in his phone call with G7 leaders earlier this week. A day later, Iran’s new religious leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, He promised to continue the fight in a message broadcast via state television.
A number of foreign ships in or near the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil shipping route that remains blockaded amid escalating conflict, were hit with munitions this week. The attacks have raised concerns that a protracted war could lead to a global economic shock.
“Be prepared for oil to reach $200 a barrel, because the price of oil depends on regional security, which you are destabilizing,” Iranian military command spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaqari said on Wednesday. he said. According to Reuters.
Oil prices remain high despite the International Energy Agency agreeing to release a record 400 million barrels of oil from emergency reserves and the White House deciding to temporarily waive some sanctions on Russian exports.
In a note published Friday morning, Barclays’ Emmanuel Cau said investors were becoming increasingly nervous after initially pricing in a short-lived conflict.
“Investors still believe Trump’s statement, so global stocks are not down as much as they were in past oil shocks,” they said. “However, uneasiness is increasing day by day, and the longer the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, the more stagflationary the markets will become. Be careful of central banks’ hawkish re-pricing of interest rates next week.”
Speaking to CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Friday, Amjad Bseisu, CEO of British oil production company EnQuest, said the oil market “has never seen anything of this magnitude before.”
“Every day we see a delay, there is another 20 million barrels [wiped off the market]”This will have an impact and will continue to have an impact,” he said.
“I think this as a crisis is probably going to be longer and harder than it was before, and it’s probably something we need to pay attention to the downsides rather than the positives.”
Bseisu noted that the last time there was a similar reduction in global oil supply was the Arab embargo in the 1970s.
“Then we saw prices quadruple, and I think we saw prices increase 50% here, but I think it’s going to happen over a fairly long term,” he told CNBC.
