Oil prices hold near six-week highs on US-Iran attacks

According to Business Recorder, oil prices stayed close to six-week highs on Monday, edging toward $100 a barrel. Brent futures climbed $1.19, or 1.2 per cent, reaching $97.47 a barrel at 1214 GMT, after an earlier peak of $97.93, its highest level since July 24. West Texas Intermediate rose 78 cents to $92.26 per barrel, staying close to its recent six-week peak.

On Saturday, US forces hit three Iranian tankers, according to U.S. Central Command, with one strike off Kharg Island, an oil export hub. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it targeted three tankers using routes it had not approved in the Strait of Hormuz, along with three U.S.-linked vessels elsewhere. Kpler data showed an average of 10 commodity ships a day passed through the strait in the 10 days before Monday, the fewest since May.

Brent gained around 8 per cent last week and WTI nearly 10 per cent once the US and Iran restarted strikes. A Financial Times account cited in the report said Saudi Aramco's Jazan refinery came under attack on Monday, with damage still being assessed. OPEC+ left its output policy unchanged for October at a Sunday meeting, saying quotas must be agreed before any decision on further steps. Mohsen Rezaei of Iran's Supreme National Security Council said a restricted area would be declared beyond the Strait of Hormuz over the next few days.