{"id":27714,"date":"2026-03-04T12:23:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T10:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&p=27714"},"modified":"2026-03-04T12:23:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T10:23:22","slug":"oil-prices-rise-3-as-iran-crisis-disrupts-middle-east-supply","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/oil-prices-rise-3-as-iran-crisis-disrupts-middle-east-supply\/","title":{"rendered":"Oil prices rise 3% as Iran crisis disrupts Middle East supply"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Oil prices rose 3% on Wednesday as the United States (US), Israeli war \u200bon Iran disrupted Middle East supplies, but the pace of gains slowed from past sessions after \u200cPresident Donald Trump suggested the US Navy could escort vessels through the Strait of Hormuz.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Brent rose $2.67, or 3.3%, to $84.07 a barrel by 0659 GMT, after closing on Tuesday at its highest since January 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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US West Texas Intermediate crude rose $2.24, or 3%, to $76.8, after settling at its \u200bhighest since June. Both benchmarks have risen about 5% or more in the past two sessions.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“The primary near-term \u200bdriver for oil prices remains the US, Iran conflict,” said OANDA Senior Market analyst Kelvin Wong.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“At \u2060this stage, only clear signs of de-escalation could mitigate or reverse the current bullish trend for WTI, and such \u200bsignals are currently lacking.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Israeli and US forces struck targets across Iran on Tuesday, prompting Iranian strikes against energy infrastructure in a \u200bregion that accounts for just under a third of global oil production.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Iraq, the second-largest crude producer in the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, has cut output by nearly 1.5 million barrels a day, about half its production, due to storage limits and the lack of an \u200bexport route, officials told Reuters.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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–Reuters–<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":20970,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-27714","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Oil prices rose 3% on Wednesday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/27714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/27714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27715,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/27714\/revisions\/27715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=27714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}