Brent crude climbed back above $90 a barrel on Monday after U.S. forces struck Iranian positions for the first time in roughly a month, reigniting supply fears tied to the Strait of Hormuz. Brent futures climbed 3.4% to $91.09 a barrel, with WTI matching that gain to reach $86.22 a barrel.
U.S. Navy Captain Tim Hawkins, a U.S. Central Command spokesperson, confirmed the strike in a statement Monday. "I can confirm that earlier today U.S. forces struck two Iranian launchers on Larak Island. Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces were observed preparing to launch rockets with sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz," Captain Hawkins said. Sunday's strike was the first publicly acknowledged U.S. attack on Iranian positions since late July, according to the Associated Press.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps announced that the strike on Larak Island left a number of its soldiers dead and injured, and said Tehran had retaliated by targeting U.S. military installations in Jordan, according to CNBC . President Donald Trump posted a video to Truth Social Sunday night captioned "Kharg Island being blown to smithereens!!!" — an AI-generated clip depicting an attack on Iran's main oil export terminal, though CENTCOM did not report any strike there and Iran's state oil company dismissed the claim.
The return to open combat between the two sides threatens a waterway that was already under severe strain. Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has faced mounting pressure as the conflict enters its sixth month, tightening global energy supply chains.
The broader conflict's toll on oil markets has been substantial. The International Energy Agency had already cut its 2026 global oil supply forecast to 102 million barrels per day , projecting a global market deficit of 1.8 million barrels per day in the third quarter after the breakdown of a U.S.-Iran ceasefire reversed a partial recovery in Gulf output. Middle East oil loadings had reached 20 million barrels per day at the start of July before retreating to roughly 12 million barrels per day as the Strait effectively closed again and attacks on tankers resumed.
U.S. military escorts had helped move more than 660 million barrels of crude through the Strait of Hormuz since early May, Central Command said, though that throughput remained well below pre-conflict levels when the combined flow of crude and petroleum products reached around 20 million barrels per day. Iran has insisted that Hormuz will remain closed until Washington meets broad conditions, including sanctions relief and an end to its naval blockade — a position President Trump has publicly rejected.
