Brent rises 3.2%; Iran says 7 tankers caught fire or were damaged in Hormuz
Key Facts
Brent crude rose 3.2% to $112.27 a barrel during trading on Thursday, 22 October 2026, according to an Associated Press market update, as Iran announced that tankers had caught fire or been damaged in the Strait of Hormuz. The agency cited Iran as saying that 7 oil tankers caught fire or sustained damage overnight in the waterway. It said the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations had not reported the attacks described in the Iranian account at the time of reporting. Benchmark U.S. crude also rose 2.8% to $99.80 a barrel in the same update. Brent's percentage gain exceeded that of U.S. crude, with both benchmarks rising during Thursday's session. The moves come amid risks to oil tanker transit that the U.S. Energy Information Administration said were increasing shipping costs and feeding into crude prices.
In equities, Germany's DAX fell 1.1% to 25,367.96 in early European trading on Thursday, according to AP. The decline followed gains in U.S. stocks on Wednesday, 21 October 2026. The Dow Jones rose 0.7% in that session, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.1%, the agency said. Oil's rise comes against a backdrop of earlier waves of escalation, with Brent having returned to triple digits in September. On 9 September 2026, it settled at $101.21 a barrel after crossing the hundred-dollar threshold for the first time since July, according to AP's coverage at the time. That puts Brent's price in Thursday's update above its settlement level during the previous wave of escalation, although the observation periods differ between current trading and the historical close.
On supply, the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimated in its October report that shut-in crude production averaged 4.8 million barrels a day in September. Shut-in production had averaged 5.8 million barrels a day in August, indicating a reduction in the scale of disruption between the two months, although some production remained offline. In Saudi Arabia, the report said the East–West pipeline had undergone repairs and partially resumed flows from 22 September. The pipeline's partial restart forms part of the supply backdrop accompanying risks to tanker traffic in the region. Describing the impact of those risks, the agency said: "The increased risks associated with oil tankers transiting the region have added to shipping costs and increased the risk premium reflected in oil prices." The impact described by the agency thus extended to oil transportation costs and pricing, alongside developments in shut-in production and the restoration of flows through the Saudi pipeline.
In the United States, commercial crude inventories, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, fell to 412.5 million barrels in the week ended 16 October 2026, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Inventories had stood at 415.6 million barrels in the week ended 9 October, putting the weekly decline at 3.1 million barrels based on the rounded official figures. The decline extended to gasoline, with inventories falling to 205,310 thousand barrels from 208,262 thousand the previous week. Distillate inventories moved in the opposite direction over the same period, rising to 104,286 thousand barrels from 102,611 thousand. Crude and gasoline inventory draws thus coincided with an increase in distillate stocks during the reporting week, rather than declines across all categories.
On the diplomatic front, both the United States and Iran acknowledged that discussions between them were continuing, according to AP. The discussions are being held indirectly, alongside developments affecting oil shipping in the region. For U.S. inventory monitoring, the Energy Information Administration designates Wednesday as the standard release day for its weekly report. The report is published at 10:30 a.m. U.S. Eastern time, according to the agency's schedule. Under this weekly publication schedule, the next release falls on Wednesday, 28 October 2026.