Oil prices jump as US strikes Iran for 11th consecutive night
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Wednesday 22 Jul 2026
(Sharecast News) - Oil prices shot higher on Wednesday after the US carried out strikes on Iran for the 11th consecutive night and after Tehran targeted a US military base in Kuwait with drones.
Investors were also mulling the latest comments from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said the US was willing to negotiate an end to the war but that Tehran was not "serious" about talks.
"The United States remains open and willing to engage in positive and constructive negotiations and discussions, provided that the commitments made are honoured," Rubio said about Iran at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in Manila.
Meanwhile, US president Donald Trump told reporters on Tuesday that the US would soon target the area near Pickaxe Mountain, a suspected nuclear facility in Iran.
"We'll be hitting that area pretty soon, and very heavily," Trump said, having been asked whether he believes Tehran has moved nuclear centrifuges to the site.
"We'll be hitting that area ... probably pretty soon. And there's not a thing they can do about it," he said.
At 1020 BST, West Texas Intermediate was up 3.8% at $94.48 a barrel and Brent crude was 4.2% higher at $87.89.
Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, said: "Secretary of State Marco Rubio, said earlier today that Iran has not honoured the Strait of Hormuz deal, which may have been designed to justify the US hitting Iranian targets for the 11th consecutive day.
"Rubio justified this by saying the strikes are designed to degrade Iran's ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. This may undermine the Memorandum of Understanding, since Iran interpreted the original June agreement as giving them control of the Strait, which is the US does not agree with."
Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at Wealth Club, said: "Risks to supplies are mounting again, with the effective blockage of the Strait of Hormuz remaining a chokehold as tankers are stranded in and around the waterway, while risks to other crude routes are also intensifying. Both the Red and Black Seas are fast becoming the latest flashpoints.
"President Trump has dashed hopes for imminent talks, threatening to ramp up attacks on Iran if Houthi rebels are drawn into the conflict and begin disrupting the Red Sea route for oil shipments. As the conflict in Ukraine rages, with drone attacks on tankers serving Russia's Caspian Pipeline Consortium on the Black Sea coast, Kazakhstan has been forced to halt crude exports through the port.
"Both conflicts, which look increasingly intractable given the lack of momentum behind diplomatic solutions, are threatening to choke vital energy supply routes and keep a firm floor under oil prices, raising the risk that inflationary pressures flare up once again. If they drag on, this could prove to be the low point for inflation before price pressures start building again through the second half of the year."
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