Crude oil futures eye a breakout as Iran risks grow, Hormuz stays restricted, and falling inventories tighten global oil supplies.
China's April crude oil throughput fell to the lowest since August 2022, official data showed on Monday, as the Iran war curbed refinery runs in the world's second-largest oil consumer.
Trump said in a Truth Social post Sunday that "For Iran, the Clock is Ticking" International Energy Agency has warned that oil inventories globally were depleting at a record pace.
Oil rose amid prospects of a prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. stock-index futures fell and crude prices rose on Sunday, after the market's rally stalled last week as oil prices rose sharply amid the impasse in the war with Iran.
Oil prices extended gains on Monday as efforts to end the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran appeared to have stalled, after a nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates came under attack and as U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to discuss military options on Iran.
President Donald Trump warned Iran that the “clock is ticking.”
Iraq exported 10 million barrels of oil via the Strait of Hormuz in April, down from about 93 million barrels monthly before the Iran war, the country's new oil minister, Basim Mohammed, said at a press conference on Saturday.
U.S. oil refiners are finally reaping profits from renewable fuels, which had squeezed margins for years, but now demand has surged thanks to recent government biofuel mandates and rising diesel prices driven by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
China and the U.S. have played a big role in easing the impact of the oil supply disruption, according to the International Energy Agency and Wall Street analysts. The U.S. has boosted exports while China has slashed imports.
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Capital Economics said that in an extreme scenario where the Iran war escalates, Brent crude prices could rise above $150 a barrel and remain around that level until the end of 2027.