Oil hovers near $100 as Hegseth dismisses Strait of Hormuz fears: 'Don't need to worry about it'
Prices have stayed elevated despite a record 400-million-barrel emergency reserve release by IEA member countries
The Strait of Hormuz. (Photo by FADEL SENNA / AFP via Getty Images)
Brent crude pulled back to about $99 a barrel Friday morning after closing above $100 the day before, as the U.S.-Israel war with Iran was entering its third week with no clear end in sight.
West Texas Intermediate was trading near $94. Brent has risen more than 9% over the past five days, on top of a roughly 28% jump the week prior — a pace of weekly gains not seen since 2020, according to CNBC. WTI's weekly performance last week was its strongest in more than four decades.
Related Content
President Donald Trump said overnight on Truth Social that the U.S. has "unparalleled firepower, unlimited ammunition, and plenty of time," and called on followers to watch what would happen to the Iranian regime. Axios reported Friday that Trump had told G7 leaders earlier this week that Iran was "about to surrender," according to CNBC. Mojtaba Khamenei, who took over as Iran's supreme leader during the conflict, rejected any talk of capitulation in a televised address, according to CNBC.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pushed back Friday on concerns that the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz — the waterway responsible for roughly 20 million barrels a day of oil and product flows — represents a lasting problem. "We have been dealing with it, and don't need to worry about it," Hegseth said at a Pentagon briefing, according to CNBC. He also disputed reports that the U.S. military lacked a plan to reopen the strait before it launched the war.
Hegseth said the U.S. and Israel had struck more than 15,000 targets since the conflict began and that Iran's new supreme leader was likely wounded, according to The Wall Street Journal. "The United States is decimating the radical Iranian regime's military, in a way the world has never seen before," he said.
Attacks on commercial shipping near the Strait continued through the week, with multiple foreign vessels taking fire and deepening concerns about the war's economic toll. Iran's military spokesperson warned this week that oil could reach $200 a barrel, citing regional instability.
Neither a record 400-million-barrel drawdown from IEA emergency stockpiles nor a White House decision to ease some Russian oil sanctions has been enough to bring prices back down.
The war has upended Trump's earlier goal of pushing oil to $50 a barrel to help reduce costs for American consumers.