{"id":28570,"date":"2026-03-12T18:09:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T16:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=28570"},"modified":"2026-03-12T18:09:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T16:09:00","slug":"oil-unlikely-to-hit-200-a-barrel","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/oil-unlikely-to-hit-200-a-barrel\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Oil unlikely to hit $200 a barrel&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With the US-Israeli war on Iran widening, two crude tankers blazed in an Iraqi port after being hit by suspected Iranian explosive-laden boats, while scores of other oil-laden ships remained stranded with the strait still shuttered.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Oil prices jumped more than 9% to nearly $100 a barrel.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I would say unlikely, but we are focused on the military operation and \u200bsolving a problem,&#8221; Wright told CNN when asked if prices would reach $200 a barrel, a level that an Iranian official said prices could hit if \u200bthe war further escalates.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Wright&#8217;s use of the word &#8220;unlikely&#8221; was a veiled concession that a spike to $200 was possible, though he repeated \u2060that the price jump would be weeks, not months.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Brent oil hit an all-time high in 2008 of around $147 per barrel, on tension between the West and Iran over its \u200bnuclear program, a weak US Dollar, and inflation fears.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":28571,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-28570","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"United States (US) Energy Secretary Chris \u200bWright said on Thursday that oil prices are unlikely to reach $200 a barrel, with President Donald Trump touting US gains from higher prices \u200cas the war with Iran disrupted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.","published_date":"","news_description":"United States (US) Energy Secretary Chris \u200bWright said on Thursday that oil prices are unlikely to reach $200 a barrel, with President Donald Trump touting US gains from higher prices \u200cas the war with Iran disrupted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28570","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\/28570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28572,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28570\/revisions\/28572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=28570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}