Brent Crude Climbs to $92.77 as Strait of Hormuz Tanker Attacks Undercut Iran Truce Hopes

Oil prices rebounded Wednesday after falling to two-month lows earlier in the week, with Brent crude rising to $92.77 a barrel as fresh tanker attacks in and near the Strait of Hormuz eroded optimism about a U.S.-Iran diplomatic settlement. Traders had pushed prices sharply lower after President Donald Trump signaled on Sunday that he was highly unlikely to order new military strikes on Iran as long as peace talks continued, briefly sending Brent below $90 for the first time since August.

The recovery reflected a reassessment of those peace hopes after continued assaults on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint through which a significant share of the world's seaborne oil passes. October had already seen a record number of such attacks, and reports of additional strikes on tankers in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman kept supply disruption concerns elevated. The UK Maritime Trade Operations Centre had tracked at least four ship attacks since the start of November alone.

Markets are now caught between two competing signals: the prospect of a diplomatic resolution that could ease the conflict and restore fuller oil flows, and the reality of ongoing attacks that keep those flows at risk. Iran's reported openness to softening its posture on Hormuz passage had contributed to the earlier price drop, but the persistence of attacks undermined confidence in that shift.