{"id":29634,"date":"2026-03-23T11:47:57","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T09:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&p=29634"},"modified":"2026-03-23T11:47:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T09:47:57","slug":"us-crude-spikes-3-as-iran-threatens-to-hit-gulf-power-infrastructure-over-trump-warning","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/us-crude-spikes-3-as-iran-threatens-to-hit-gulf-power-infrastructure-over-trump-warning\/","title":{"rendered":"US crude spikes 3% as Iran threatens to hit Gulf power infrastructure over Trump warning"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Oil prices rose on Monday after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said \u200cthey would target Israel’s power plants and those supplying United States (US) bases in the Middle East in retaliation against any attack on its electricity sector.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Brent crude futures rose $1.57 to $113.76 a barrel. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was at $101.32 a barrel, up $3.09, or, 3.15%. \u200bBoth contracts swung $1 lower after an early $1 gain in volatile Asian trade.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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WTI’s jump narrowed its discount \u200bto Brent, which last week had blown out to its widest in 13 years.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Oil \u2060sentiment may lurch on threats and rhetoric in the near term, but its more durable direction will continue \u200bto be shaped by the state of Middle East oil flows,” said Vandana Hari, founder of oil market \u200banalysis provider Vanda Insights.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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On Saturday, US President Donald Trump threatened to “obliterate” Iran’s power plants if it did not fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours, barely a day after he talked about “winding down” the war, now in its fourth week.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“It clearly means \u200bmore escalation, which means higher oil prices. Some are incorrectly thinking, however, that Iran may cave,” said Amrita \u200bSen, founder of Energy Aspects.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The \u2060crisis in the Middle East is “very severe” and worse than the two oil shocks of the 1970s put together, Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, said on Monday.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The war has damaged major energy facilities in the Gulf and nearly halted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which handles about 20% of \u200bglobal oil and liquefied natural \u200bgas flows.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Russia said on \u2060Monday it opposes any blockade of the Strait of Hormuz but says such issues must be viewed in the context of the broader global situation, Interfax reported, citing the \u200bRussian Foreign Ministry.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Analysts estimated a loss of 7 million to 10 million barrels \u200bper day of \u2060oil production in the Middle East.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Iraq has declared force majeure on all oilfields developed by foreign oil companies, three energy officials said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Crude production at Basra Oil Company has been cut to 900 000 bpd from 3.3 million bpd, Iraqi Oil Minister \u2060Hayan \u200bAbdel-Ghani said in a statement issued by his Ministry.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Indian refiners plan \u200bto resume buying Iranian oil while refiners elsewhere in Asia are examining such a move, traders have said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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–Reuters–<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":22630,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,44],"class_list":["post-29634","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Oil prices rose on Monday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/29634","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\/29634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29635,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/29634\/revisions\/29635"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=29634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}