(RTTNews) – Oil prices held steady on Wednesday after climbing to more than one-month highs earlier amid a resurgence of fighting in the Middle East.
Brent crude futures edged up 0.3 percent to $94.96 a barrel, extending gains for a third consecutive session to the highest level in nearly six weeks as escalating fighting between the U.S. and Iran heightened concerns over further disruptions to energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz.
WTI crude futures were marginally higher at $90.28, paring early gains amid signs that crude supplies continue to reach the market.
U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said that 17 million barrels of oil transited the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, marking the highest level of oil flow through the waterway since the Iran war has reduced flows.
He also announced that oil deals expected to be signed in Caracas could more than double Venezuela’s crude production within the next few years.
Meanwhile, Tehran launched missile and drone attacks towards U.S.-linked sites in Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait in defiance of a warning from U.S. President Trump that any retaliation would see Iran “hit much harder” and that the U.S. is still holding out on “the biggest attack of them all.”
The Iranian strikes came hours after the U.S. Central Command announced a fresh wave of attacks against IRGC targets, citing Tehran’s attempts to lay mines in the Strait of Hormuz and an earlier attack on a U.S. military base.
During a G20 finance ministers’ meeting, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent explained that the Strait of Hormuz “will be bypassed within two years,” predicting that the waterway would become “like a worthless lake” as oil flows are shifted to land routes.
Elsewhere, Russian forces launched a “massive” missile and drone attack on energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s southern region of Odesa overnight in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian targets.
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