Oil hits 1-month high as US-Iran fighting clouds Strait of Hormuz outlook

Brent crude nears $85 a barrel amid renewed hostiles between Washington and Tehran.Oil prices have surged to their highest level in a month as renewed hostilities between the United States and Iran continued for a third consecutive day, dampening hopes for a return to normality in the Strait of Hormuz.Brent crude, the primary international benchmark, rose 2 percent on Tuesday, extending a 9.6 percent gain from the previous day.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4How Kenyan volunteers hunt polio’s hidden traillist 2 of 4Indonesia’s jailing of Gojek founder raises fears for investor confidencelist 3 of 4Record El Niño threatens to unleash floods across East Africa and Asialist 4 of 4Trump demands payment to protect Gulf nations from Iranian attacksend of listBrent futures for September delivery stood at $84.91 a barrel as of 03:30 GMT, the highest since June 15.After easing to pre-conflict levels following Washington and Tehran’s signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for peace last month, Brent has risen about 17 percent from its price before the start of the US-Israel war on Iran in late February.US Central Command on Monday announced a third day of strikes on Iran, saying its forces had targeted Tehran’s ability to attack “innocent civilians and commercial shipping” in the Strait of Hormuz.Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it attacked two oil supertankers in the strait and launched missile and drone strikes against US military assets in Kuwait and Bahrain in retaliation for the attacks.Adding to the market volatility, US President Donald Trump said on Monday that Washington would reimpose its blockade of Iranian ports and begin charging vessels transit fees as the “guardian” of the critical waterway.“Crude oil is fast losing its strategic petroleum reserve buffer, and a violent repricing up cannot be discounted until the market sees toned-down rhetoric from both parties,” June Goh, a senior oil market analyst at Sparta Commodities in Singapore, told Al Jazeera, referring to the US government’s emergency oil stockpile, which the Trump administration has drawn on to mitigate supply constraints.After ticking up in recent weeks amid hopes for a permanent peace deal between Washington and Tehran, traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has plummeted amid the renewed threat of violence against commercial shipping.