WTI reaches $99.83, Brent rises as supply threats mount
Key Facts
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude reached $99.83 a barrel on Thursday morning, October 22, 2026, approaching the hundred-dollar mark amid mounting concerns over Middle Eastern oil supplies, according to Reuters. Brent crude futures reached $112.17 a barrel in the same morning trading, leaving the two benchmarks on either side of that threshold. Brent's price at 08:18 GMT reflected a rise that the agency linked to Houthi attacks in Saudi Arabia and fears of supply disruptions. Alongside these developments, the U.S. State Department ordered some diplomats and family members to leave its missions in Saudi Arabia, according to U.S. officials who spoke to Reuters. The departure order covered some diplomatic personnel and family members as attacks inside Saudi Arabia coincided with threats to ships and oil transport in the Gulf.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards navy said 4 vessels involved in oil transport operations it described as illegal were hit and caught fire in the northern Gulf on Wednesday, October 21, according to Reuters. That description of the transport operations formed part of the Guards navy's account of the incidents and the vessels targeted. The Revolutionary Guards added in a statement on Thursday, October 22, that 3 other vessels struck mines west of the Strait of Hormuz. Those statements were preceded by a note from ship-tracking company Kpler, issued on Monday, October 19, that reported repeated attacks on vessels during the monitoring period. The company said, according to Reuters, that "at least 18 attacks on vessels were reported over two weeks," a tally covering the period addressed by the note that preceded the Iranian statements.
The threats to shipping follow a decline in oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz over previous months, according to estimates from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Flows totaled 4.9 million barrels per day in the second quarter of 2026, compared with 21.6 million barrels per day in the final quarter of 2025. The comparison covers total oil flows through the strait between the two periods, while tankers continued to pass through the waterway during the latest developments. The Associated Press, citing Lloyd's List Intelligence, reported that "oil tankers are still transporting oil through the strait under U.S. military protection." Transits thus continued under military protection despite the incidents announced by the Revolutionary Guards in the northern Gulf and west of the strait, and following the recorded decline in flows between the two quarters.
In Saudi Arabia, the Associated Press cited Amin Nasser as saying capacity had increased on the East-West pipeline, which provides an alternative route for transporting oil amid threats to shipping. Nasser said the pipeline's capacity had risen "from two million barrels to seven million barrels per day," according to the statement published by the agency on Thursday, October 22. The increase concerns the Saudi pipeline's capacity, as oil tankers continue to transit Hormuz under U.S. protection. In another supply development, the head of Libya's National Oil Corporation told Reuters that the closure of a pipeline valve had reduced production at the Hamada and Tahara fields. The affected pipeline links the two fields to the port of Zawiya, extending the impact of the valve closure to production at both fields, alongside the disruptions surrounding oil transport routes in the Gulf.
In the United States, commercial crude inventories fell by 3.1 million barrels in the week ended October 16, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The decline brought inventories to 412.5 million barrels, excluding oil held in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Commercial crude inventories stood 3% below the five-year average, according to the comparison provided by the agency in its weekly report. U.S. distillate inventories, meanwhile, rose to 104.3 million barrels in the same week, compared with 102.6 million barrels in the week ended October 9. The increase in distillate inventories coincided with the drawdown in commercial crude stocks, in the latest weekly period covered by the agency's data accompanying developments in the oil market.