Brent crude oil price rises to $108.34 per barrel on September 16

Brent crude opened September 16 at $108.34 per barrel, up $1.77 from the previous morning and sitting roughly $40 above where it traded at the same point last year. Brent has climbed more than 50% from its summer lows, a pace that makes the current level feel less like a spike and more like a repricing. What pushed oil to $108 The single biggest supply shock in recent weeks has been the closure of Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline, a critical artery that moves oil from the country’s Eastern Province to export terminals on the Red Sea. Houthi forces struck the infrastructure, forcing a halt to exports that would normally flow through that route. The broader context is an escalating US-Iran conflict that has made tanker transit in the region genuinely hazardous. Attacks on vessels have added a risk premium to every barrel moving through contested waters, and that premium is now baked into the global benchmark price. Analysts tracking the situation project that every additional month of supply disruption at current severity could add $7 to $8 per barrel to Brent prices. The inventory number that offered brief relief US crude inventories rose by 7.1 million barrels in the most recent w...