Oil surges past $95 as U.S. downplays Iran diplomacy and a 2nd key trade route is disrupted
The price of oil surged nearly 5% on Wednesday as U.S. officials talked down the chance of new peace talks after an 11th straight night of strikes on Iran and with major disruption now facing two of the world’s key supply routes.
International Brent crude oil rose almost 5% to more than $95 per barrel for the first time in almost six weeks. U.S. crude oil rose more than 4% to more than $88 per barrel.
While Brent is widely considered the international oil benchmark, it also influences U.S. gas prices.
Those pump prices rose again Wednesday, extending their climb above $4. The national average price per gallon rose 5 cents from Tuesday to $4.06 per gallon, according to AAA data tracked by NBC News.
Read more Third U.S. service member believed to have been killed in Iranian attack identified by military
Overnight, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the U.S. remains open to diplomacy with Iran, “but right now they don’t seem to be serious about that.”
Rubio added that the U.S. would continue to try to protect commercial shipping. But in the last two days, the U.K.’s Maritime Trade Organization has reported multiple attacks on vessels in the area. In at least two of those, the Royal Navy-aligned maritime monitoring group said that a crew abandoned its ship.
“Iran is targeting global shipping in an international waterway and demanding to control which ships can go and which ones cannot,” Rubio added. “That just is unacceptable. We’re not going to accept that.”
Read more The costs of the Iran war are rising, as Trump and Tehran signal an expanding conflict
