MW Oil prices move up again on Middle East supply worries after a nearly flat finish
By Jamie Chisholm and Joseph Adinolfi
Goldman Sachs warns that the cost of crude oil could hit $100 a barrel
Foreign workers watch a plume of black smoke ascend following an explosion in the Fujairah industrial zone of the U.A.E. on Tuesday.
Oil prices strengthened Wednesday afternoon in after-hours trading, gathering steam following a nearly flat finish and climbing back toward multimonth highs as traders weighed the impact of ongoing developments in the Middle East.
Oil had spent part of the session trading lower, after reports that Iranian intelligence had reached out indirectly to the CIA for talks helped ease concerns about lasting supply disruptions. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also said Wednesday during an interview with CNBC that the U.S. government would soon roll out a number of measures aimed at stabilizing the oil trade in the Persian Gulf.
There is a lot of risk associated with the situation - and President Donald Trump's plan for escorts and insurance for ships sailing through the Strait of Hormuz is "not going to solve the problem, as long as Iran has the capability to hit ships in the Gulf - which it still has," John Paisie, the president of Stratas Advisors, told MarketWatch Wednesday afternoon.
Brent crude, the global benchmark, saw its May contract (BRNK26) (BRN00) finish flat at $81.40 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe after trading as low as $80.30 on Wednesday. It then climbed to $81.78 in after-hours electronic trading.
Brent (BRN00) had climbed above $85 on Tuesday but dipped later in that session after Trump suggested the U.S. Navy could escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.
The strait is a crucial conduit through which most Persian Gulf oil production is transported.
West Texas Intermediate crude (CL.1) saw its April contract (CLJ26) settle at $74.66 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 0.1% Wednesday, after trading as low as $73.28. It was up from the settlement later Wednesday afternoon, at $75.20.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs led by Daan Struyven, co-head of global commodities research, said Wednesday that if volumes of oil from the Strait of Hormuz remained flat for five more weeks, Brent crude would likely extend to $100 a barrel.
Meanwhile, the benchmark for natural-gas prices in Europe settled lower for the session, pulling back after recent gains following Qatar's decision to close its main liquid-natural-gas production facility amid attacks launched by Iran. The Dutch TTF natural-gas contract for April (TTFCJ26) fell 8.6% to EUR49.605 per megawatt hour.
Myra P. Saefong contributed.
-Jamie Chisholm -Joseph Adinolfi
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March 04, 2026 16:18 ET (21:18 GMT)
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