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Iran Conflict 2026
12JUN

Oil surges past $103 on blockade

3 min read
09:18UTC

Brent crude jumped 8% past $103 on Monday, reversing the post-ceasefire drop and making Goldman Sachs's $120 Q3 severe scenario the operative frame.

ConflictDeveloping
Key takeaway

Goldman Sachs's $120 severe scenario is now the operative frame, not the tail risk.

Brent Crude surged 8% above $103 on the blockade announcement, reversing the post-ceasefire drop that had taken prices to $92.21 . Goldman Sachs had cut its Q2 Brent forecast to $90 after the ceasefire was announced. The blockade made that forecast obsolete within a day. Goldman's severe scenario, $120 by Q3, is now the operative frame rather than the tail risk .

Approximately a dozen Iranian supertankers carrying an estimated $2.4 billion of crude sit stationary in the Gulf of Oman, caught between CENTCOM's blockade from one side and Iran's own mine and vetting regime from the other . The $2.4 billion figure derives from operational analysis rather than wire-service confirmation. 325 tankers remain stranded in the Gulf. Hormuz traffic, which had climbed to 17 transits by Saturday, dropped to near zero when enforcement started 1. 20,000 sailors aboard roughly 2,000 vessels are stranded.

Saudi Arabia has insulated itself: its Petroline pipeline, restored to full capacity, now routes all exports via the Red Sea, bypassing Hormuz. That protects Riyadh's revenue but does nothing for the 21 million bpd that normally transits the strait .

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Oil prices shot up sharply on Monday when the blockade was announced. Brent crude , the international benchmark for oil pricing , jumped 8% above $103 per barrel. For context, it had fallen to $92 after the ceasefire last week. Why does this matter to you? Oil prices feed into fuel prices at petrol stations, heating costs, and the cost of transporting goods. When oil goes up, almost everything gets slightly more expensive with a delay of a few weeks. Goldman Sachs, one of the world's largest banks, had previously predicted oil could reach $120 in the worst case. Before Monday, that seemed unlikely. Now analysts say it is possible without anything further going wrong.

What could happen next?
  • Consequence

    April CPI will layer blockade-driven fuel costs on top of March's 0.9% monthly rise , the largest since 1967 , creating a two-month compounding effect that central banks cannot offset without rate rises that would further damage consumer confidence.

    Short term · 0.85
  • Risk

    If Goldman's $120 scenario materialises, US Federal Reserve rate policy is constrained: cutting rates to support the economy while inflation is energy-driven would be politically untenable, forcing a stagflationary choice between growth and price stability.

    Medium term · 0.72
  • Opportunity

    Saudi Arabia, now exporting via Petroline and insulated from Hormuz disruption, benefits from elevated prices without the supply constraint , strengthening Riyadh's fiscal position and reducing its incentive to mediate a Hormuz resolution.

    Short term · 0.8
First Reported In

Update #67 · Trump blockades Iran on a tweet

CENTCOM / Al Jazeera· 13 Apr 2026
Read original
Different Perspectives
Oil markets and Lloyd's of London
Oil markets and Lloyd's of London
Brent fell to $89.25 on ceasefire probability, not new barrels, with traders voting for Trump's deed over Tehran's denial. Lloyd's has not repriced Hormuz war-risk cover because its trigger requires a UN Security Council resolution or government certification, so tanker insurance costs remain elevated regardless of the spot move.
Pakistan and Qatar mediators
Pakistan and Qatar mediators
Pakistan's Mohsin Naqvi was in Tehran for his second visit in under a week, using the Pakistan-Qatar channel that delivered April's ceasefire after an identical public-denial cycle. The channel carries both civilian and military buy-in from Islamabad, the only configuration Iran's split command cannot dismiss as a partial signal.
India
India
India summoned the US Deputy Chief of Mission after three Indian sailors were killed aboard MT Settebello, the first formal grievance from a major non-belligerent directed at US enforcement. Indian seafarers supply roughly 12 per cent of the global maritime workforce; their presence on third-flag Gulf tankers is structurally inevitable regardless of bilateral diplomacy.
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)
The IRGC declared Hormuz closed on 11 June while civilian negotiators were on the same mediation channel, then issued no public comment on the MoU framework. Its silence on the framework, rather than any foreign ministry statement, is the operative approval signal; the corps' unilateral Hormuz closure shows it did not treat the diplomatic track as binding on its operations.
Iran foreign ministry (Baghaei)
Iran foreign ministry (Baghaei)
Esmail Baghaei told IRNA that reports of a finalised deal were 'merely speculation' and that Iran had 'not yet made a final decision'. The denial is structurally identical to Iranian foreign ministry statements during the April ceasefire talks, which produced a binding text within 48 hours of the same language.
Trump administration / CENTCOM
Trump administration / CENTCOM
Trump cancelled the third strike day and called the MoU 'very strong' and almost ready to sign, while CENTCOM kept tanker enforcement running in the same 24-hour window. The administration is simultaneously withdrawing the military pressure it claims drove the deal and sustaining the enforcement campaign it is trying to trade away.