Brent crude breaches $90 a barrel as US-Iran tensions escalate
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Monday 20 Jul 2026
(Sharecast News) - Oil prices shot up on Monday, with Brent crude hitting its highest level since June, as tensions between the US and Iran escalated.
At 0900 BST, Brent crude was up 3.2% at $90.95 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate was 2.8% higher at $84.79 after US forces attacked Iran for the ninth night and as Tehran pledged that not a "single drop" of oil or gas would transit through the Strait of Hormuz if US aggression continues.
Speaking to reporters on his return to Washington after the World Cup, US President Donald Trump said: "We hit them very hard again tonight." He said the US had done it in honour of three US soldiers killed in strikes in Jordan and Iraq.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the Strait of Hormuz "will not be safe for the transit of petrochemical products, nor even a single drop of oil and gas" as long as US strikes continue. It added that it will respond with a "punitive operation".
Neil Wilson, UK investor strategist at Saxo Markets, said: "The MoU is effectively dead in the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf energy infrastructure is now back in the firing in line with all the associated market risks. Risks now seem skewed towards higher for longer energy prices, inflation and rates."
Patrick Munnelly at Tickmill Group said: "Iran said the MoU deal is suspended, while traffic through the Strait of Hormuz continues to dry up. That keeps the supply-risk premium embedded, even before any full closure scenario is priced. The scale of the move matters.
"Brent is now roughly 28.5% above its July low, but still short of the near-$100/bbl midpoint between the immediate pre-crisis level and the late-April peak around $126/bbl. In other words, oil has moved far enough to trouble central banks, but not far enough for markets to treat the shock as fully priced. That is an uncomfortable middle ground."
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