Crude oil soars to almost $100 a barrel after Israel attacks Iran’s Karun plant | World | News
Brent crude futures rose $3.20 or 3.39% to $96.24 a barrel while US crude futures were up $2.87 or 3.17% at $93.41 per barrel just after 4.30am UK time on Monday, June 8.
Israel on Monday carried out revenge strikes on Iranian military targets despite a warning from US President Donald Trump to show restraint.
The strikes early on came hours after Iran launched missiles at the northern part of Israel. The Israel Defence Forces said it intercepted all the missiles launched from Iran.
The retaliation comes after Trump said he would instruct Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold back from any retaliatory action against Iran.
Markets were further disrupted on Monday after Israeli strikes reportedly hit Iran’s Karun petrochemical plant near Bandar-e-Mahshahr.
Damage was caused by an Israeli projectile, Fars news reported.
The oil price gains on Monday have erased Friday’s losses after prices fell on hopes of a de-escalation in the US-ran conflict.
Trump said on Sunday that the Iranian strikes would not deter efforts to broker a long-term peace deal.
Following Iran’s barrage of missiles, Trump told the Financial Times, “It’s not going to have any impact on the deal.”
“We’ll see how it ends up. But they [the missile strikes on Israel] were attacks that did not kick at all.”
The US and Iran have been in conflict since February 28 when joint US-Israeli strikes were carried out on several key Iranian targets.
Iran retaliated by striking sites across the Middle East and closing the critical Strait of Hormuz waterway, through which 20% of global oil traded passes.
Oil prices have risen over 50% since March.
