Oil Leaps Above $95 as Iran Shuts Strait of Hormuz After US Strikes

Global oil prices vaulted more than 2% on Thursday, with Brent crude surging to $95.40 a barrel, after Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz closed to all maritime traffic in retaliation for fresh American airstrikes. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate jumped to $92.63, with intraday gains exceeding three dollars at one point. The announcement by Iran’s highest joint military command stated that oil tankers and commercial vessels would no longer be permitted to traverse the narrow channel, and that any ship attempting to cross would be fired upon.

The escalation followed overnight strikes by US forces on Iranian air-defence systems, radars and drone command units in the country’s south, carried out on the orders of the president as commander-in-chief. President Donald Trump warned of “more powerful strikes” unless Tehran agreed to a new deal, deepening doubts over the fragile two-month truce that had briefly calmed markets. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps declared it had already attacked two vessels trying to cross the strait, while on Tuesday a US Apache helicopter crashed near the waterway, highlighting the volatility of the theatre.

The Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint through which roughly a fifth of global oil consumption transits, has been at the centre of recurring confrontation, but a total blockade marks a sharp escalation. Norwegian consultancy Rystad Energy warned that a sustained interruption could constitute “the largest disruption in the history of the oil market,” with immediate repercussions for global trade and energy prices. Analysts in London noted that the closure transforms a simmering shadow war into an overt and economically devastating front.

Viewed from Washington, the air campaign signals a hardening posture after months of calibrated pressure, though the administration has left itself room for diplomacy. From Tehran’s perspective, the blockade is framed as a defensive response to unprovoked aggression, even as it amounts to an act of extraordinary economic warfare. With no immediate off-ramp visible, energy traders are bracing for further spikes. Any disruption lasting more than a few days would rewire global crude flows, force emergency stockpile releases, and threaten to tip the world economy back towards stagflation. For now, the message from the Gulf is unequivocal: the world’s most critical oil artery is blocked.