Middle East and North Africa

Oil prices jumped significantly on Monday, the third day of the U.S. war on Iran, with a roller-coaster rise of between 7 percent and 9 percent in the price of benchmark crude oil, as Tehran widened the war to include targeting energy facilities all around the region.

The only wonder is that oil prices aren’t jumping even higher. What is happening now in the Middle East is exactly the scenario that energy executives, analysts, and traders have fretted about for years. 

Oil prices jumped significantly on Monday, the third day of the U.S. war on Iran, with a roller-coaster rise of between 7 percent and 9 percent in the price of benchmark crude oil, as Tehran widened the war to include targeting energy facilities all around the region.

The only wonder is that oil prices aren’t jumping even higher. What is happening now in the Middle East is exactly the scenario that energy executives, analysts, and traders have fretted about for years. 

Iran threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, and essentially did, with tanker traffic nearly stopped both coming and going. Iran has launched attacks on vital energy infrastructure in neighboring countries, including a huge refinery and export terminal in Saudi Arabia and a key natural gas export facility in Qatar. U.S. F-15s are falling out of the sky over Kuwait. There are tankers burning in Bahrain. France is sending its aircraft carrier to the eastern Mediterranean for “regional stability and protection of French interests.” 

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