US crude oil futures settled above $100 per barrel for the first time in four years to kick off the trading week. Oil prices have been surging this month amid the war in Iran, which has upended global trade flows, entering its fifth week.
May West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures soared $4.43, or 4.45%, to $104.07 a barrel at 19:24 GMT on Monday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. US crude has surged 81% this year.
Brent, the global benchmark for oil prices, firmed above $108 to start the trading week. June Brent crude futures rose $0.95, or 0.88%, to $108.34 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures exchange. Brent has also spiked 78% year-to-date.
In a Monday Truth Social post, President Donald Trump warned the United States would destroy Iran’s oil wells, power plants, and Kharg Island unless the Strait of Hormuz was reopened.
“Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet ‘touched,'” Trump said on his social media platform.
“This will be in retribution for our many soldiers, and others, that Iran has butchered and killed over the old Regime’s 47 year ‘Reign of Terror.'”
Meanwhile, speaking in an interview with the Financial Times on Sunday, said he would prefer to “take the oil” in Iran, comparable to his actions in Venezuela.
But the situation in the Middle East could worsen as Yemen’s Houthi rebels ostensibly joined the conflict, launching missiles at Israel. This marked the first direct action in the joint US-Israeli operation in Tehran.
The latest developments suggest oil prices could remain “high-for-longer,” says Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research.
“The speed and magnitude of the move underscore how quickly energy markets are repricing geopolitical risk, challenging earlier efforts to keep both oil and bond markets anchored, and reinforcing the risk of sustained disruption in the Strait,” Yardeni wrote in a Monday research note.
In other energy commodities, May natural gas futures tumbled $0.14, or 4.63%, to $2.885 per million British thermal units (Btu). May gasoline futures advanced $0.0884, or 2.77%, to $3.2794 a gallon. May heating oil futures rose $0.0237, or 0.56%, to $4.26 per gallon.