Oil tops $79 as Hormuz standoff deepens

July 13, 2026 (MLN): Global oil prices have climbed sharply  after the United States and Iran exchanged fresh military strikes in an escalating contest over control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Currently, Brent crude futures is up, 4.05%, at $79.09 per barrel, according to data by Mettis Global.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures is up by $2.89, or 4.05%, to $74.3 per barrel by [09:20 am] PST.

The US military carried out another strike against Iran on Sunday, following an assault on 140 targets a day earlier, according to US Central Command, CNBC  reported.

Washington said the strikes were retaliation for an attack by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on a container vessel transiting Hormuz.

Iran hit back Sunday, striking US military installations in Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman.

Iranian state media reported that the Revolutionary Guard had shut down the strait until further notice, a claim the US military rejected.

Sunday's strikes marked the fourth round of US military action against Iran within a week, each carried out in response to attacks on commercial vessels using the US-protected southern corridor of the strait.

Tehran, for its part, is insisting that ships instead use a northern route through Iranian territorial waters, asserting sovereign control over the passage.

The renewed clashes trace back to differing US and Iranian readings of how Hormuz was meant to reopen under an interim peace agreement the two sides signed on June 17.

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