Oil prices surged above $100 per barrel for the second time since the conflict began on Friday as the US moved to ease sanctions on Russian crude.
Futures on Brent crude (BZ=F), the international pricing benchmark, erased earlier losses to gain 1.6% on Friday and trade at roughly $102 per barrel. Those on US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude (CL=F) gained 2% after earlier losses to change hands around $97.60.
Prices on Brent and WTI are still below their Sunday evening highs of $119 by roughly 14% and 18%, respectively, but the two energy products remain roughly 50% above where they were one month ago, even as the Trump administration has taken actions to try to limit oil’s run-up.
Read more: How oil price shocks ripple through your wallet, from gas to groceries
Late Thursday night, the US Treasury Department announced it was granting a 30-day waiver for countries to buy Russian crude oil in an attempt to open up another supply line for the global market, with the hope of bringing prices down. The waivers apply only to Russian oil loaded onto seaborne tankers by March 12, but the move has been criticized as funding Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine without making any real dent in oil pricing.
“The temporary increase in oil prices is a short-term and temporary disruption that will result in a massive benefit to our nation and economy in the long-term,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
Prices remain little changed after the announcement.
In the Middle East, the war continues to escalate as the critical Strait of Hormuz remains essentially closed to through traffic, cutting off roughly 16 million barrels per day of crude flows from the global market. In recent days, Iran has stepped up its attacks on vessels in the region, with at least 16 ships now affected. The US military also said Iran has begun placing mines throughout the strait.
In comments Friday morning, President Trump said the US planned to strike Iran “very hard” over the next week. The Iranian regime, now under Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, has increasingly targeted ports and other critical energy infrastructure throughout the Gulf region, alongside attacks against vessels in the region.
In a post on Truth Social Friday morning, the president wrote that the US is “totally destroying the terrorist regime of Iran, militarily, economically, and otherwise” and that “Iran’s Navy is gone, their Air Force is no longer, missiles, drones and everything else are being decimated, and their leaders have been wiped from the face of the earth.”