Oil prices have surged sharply in the global market following attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and conflicting signals surrounding potential renewed negotiations between the United States and Iran; Brent crude futures, the primary global benchmark, jumped more than 7 percent in Asian trading on Monday before easing slightly to $94.69 per barrel as of 02:05 GMT, still significantly higher than Friday’s level of around $90.40; the latest spike came after US President Donald Trump announced that US forces had seized an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel attempting to evade the US blockade of Iranian ports; earlier, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported that two vessels were attacked while transiting the strait over the weekend, with Iranian gunboats firing on a tanker and an “unknown projectile” hitting a container ship; after declaring the strait “completely open” on Friday, Tehran reversed its position within 24 hours, citing the ongoing US blockade; on Sunday, Trump said a US delegation would travel to Pakistan on Monday for a second round of ceasefire talks with Iranian officials, but Iran’s state news agency IRNA later reported that Tehran would not participate, citing the US blockade along with Washington’s “excessive demands” and “unrealistic expectations”; the two-week ceasefire between Washington and Tehran is set to expire on Wednesday unless both sides agree to extend it, after an initial round of talks in Islamabad earlier this month ended without any agreement; the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz—through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas supplies pass—has driven a global surge in fuel prices, forcing governments to tap emergency reserves and implement energy-saving measures; according to UKMTO, 19 vessels transited the strait on Saturday, up from 10 the previous day but still far below the historical daily average of 138; meanwhile, despite rising tensions, major Asian stock markets opened higher on Monday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining over 1 percent, South Korea’s KOSPI rising about 1.3 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng increasing around 0.5 percent, and Shanghai’s SSE Composite climbing more than 0.4 percent.
Oil prices rose amid mixed signals about US-Iran peace talks.
