West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil (CLJ26) surged more than 8% to an 8.5‑month high on March 3, while Brent crude jumped to its highest level since mid‑2025 after an advisor to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander said that Iran would "set fire to any ship attempting to pass through" the Strait of Hormuz. The strait, which runs along Iran's coast and handles roughly a fifth of the world's daily oil supply, has seen tanker traffic effectively grind to a halt since the U.S. and Israel launched joint military strikes on Iran this past week.
The impact is already showing up across the global energy system. Iranian drone attacks forced Saudi Arabia to shut its Ras Tanura refinery, while debris from an intercepted drone triggered a fire at Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), one of the largest oil storage hubs in the Middle East. Iraq, OPEC's second‑biggest producer, has had to shut production at its largest oil fields in Rumalia as storage tanks fill with no export route available.
