{"id":40371,"date":"2026-07-23T07:42:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T05:42:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=40371"},"modified":"2026-07-23T07:42:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T05:42:48","slug":"oil-prices-hover-at-six-week-high-as-middle-east-shipping-risks-escalate","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/oil-prices-hover-at-six-week-high-as-middle-east-shipping-risks-escalate\/","title":{"rendered":"Oil prices hover at six-week high as Middle East shipping risks escalate"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Oil prices rose more than 1.5% in Asian trade on Thursday to stand at their highest \u200cin more than six weeks, as Yemen&#8217;s Houthis targeted oil tankers in the Red Sea and the United States (US) launched a new round of strikes on Iran.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Brent crude futures rose $2.2 or 2.3%, to $96.27, the highest since June 8, having settled up more than $3 at $94.07 \u200bin the previous session, just shy of a six-week high.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">US West Texas Intermediate crude climbed $1.65, or 1.9%, to $88.48, \u200bafter Wednesday&#8217;s rise of 3%.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Iran&#8217;s Revolutionary Guards said an oil tanker caught fire after an explosion \u2060while attempting to follow a route they described as mined, south of the Strait of Hormuz, while two others \u200bhad turned back.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">In a statement the Guards said the strait was under their control and &#8220;completely closed&#8221; while US actions continued in the region, \u200bwarning that no tanker would be allowed to enter or leave without coordination with Iran.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Besides the renewed conflict over control of the key waterway, the Iran-aligned Houthis have opened a new front by threatening to target vessels carrying Saudi oil in the Bab el-Mandeb strait and unveiling \u200ba naval blockade of Saudi Arabia.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Oil prices are facing a rare risk from simultaneous disruptions at both the Bab \u200bel-Mandeb and the Strait of Hormuz, said Priyanka Sachdeva, Senior Market Analyst at Phillip Nova.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":36273,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-40371","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Oil prices rose more than 1.5% in Asian trade on Thursday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40371","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\/40371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40372,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40371\/revisions\/40372"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=40371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}