Brent crude tops $78 as U.S. military says strait open despite Iranian claims of closure. Centcom disputes Iranian control. Traffic flows but security remains severe, JMIC warns.
U.S. crude futures jumped 3.4% to $73.87 a barrel by 6:03 p.m. ET Sunday. Brent, the international benchmark, added 3.5% to $78.67.
The move came after the U.S. military launched another wave of strikes against Iran, hitting 140 targets Saturday, according to U.S. Central Command. Iran responded Sunday with strikes on U.S. military facilities in Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, the state news agency Tasnim reported.
Iranian state media said the Revolutionary Guard had closed the Strait of Hormuz until further notice. Centcom disputed that claim. The strait is open to "all vessels seeking to lawfully transit," Centcom said in a social media post.
President Donald Trump said Hormuz was open in an interview with NBC News' "Meet the Press" that aired Sunday. The maritime intelligence firm Windward tracked nine ships that transited the strait on Saturday.
The southern route through Oman's waters remains open to inbound and outbound traffic, said the Joint Maritime Information Center, a U.S.-led naval coalition in Bahrain. The security situation in Hormuz remains severe, the center said in a notice Sunday. Mariners should exercise "extreme vigilance," it said.
The weekend airstrikes are the fourth time the U.S. has bombed Iran over the past week in retaliation for attacks on commercial ships transiting Hormuz in the southern corridor protected by the U.S. military. Iran is demanding ships use a northern route through its territorial waters as it claims control of the strait.
The latest outbreak of fighting stems from conflicting U.S. and Iranian interpretations of how Hormuz was supposed to reopen under an interim peace deal they signed on June 17.
About 20% of the world's oil supplies transited Hormuz before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. Traffic plunged after Iran started attacking ships in the strait in early March. Transits had picked up after Washington and Tehran signed the interim deal.
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