Oil Closed October Near Six-Month Highs After a Tanker Attack in the Strait of Hormuz
Oil finished October at its highest levels since late April, with a sharp rise on the final trading day of the month. Brent crude futures, contracts for future delivery of the international benchmark oil, settled at $117.64 a barrel on Oct. 30, up $2.76, or 2.4 percent, Reuters reported. West Texas Intermediate, the United States benchmark, rose $2.12, or 2.08 percent, to $104.12 a barrel.
The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman. It connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and to shipping lanes beyond.
Tankers carrying oil produced around the Persian Gulf must pass through the strait to reach the open ocean. The United States Energy Information Administration has put the flow at about 20 million barrels a day in 2024, about one-fifth of global petroleum liquids consumption and more than one-quarter of oil traded by sea.
The war between the United States and Iran began in February. On Oct. 29, a small boat attached two limpet mines, explosive devices fixed to a ship’s hull, to a tanker in the strait, Reuters reported, citing maritime sources. The devices caused a fire in the engine room and temporarily disabled the vessel.
The crew was safe, there was no environmental impact and the fire had been extinguished, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said in an advisory note. The agency, part of the British navy, did not name the vessel and said it was continuing to its next port of call. The incident occurred 25 nautical miles northeast of Khasab, Oman, the agency said.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack, Reuters reported. Reuters, citing assessments from three maritime security sources, identified the tanker as the Panama-flagged Louise 1. Maritime sources told Reuters it was the first successful use of such explosives in the waterway since the war began in February.
Reuters reported that oil prices rose more than 2 percent on Oct. 30 as the attack highlighted supply risks. For October as a whole, Brent finished 13.6 percent higher and West Texas Intermediate rose 15.2 percent, Reuters reported. That was the fourth consecutive monthly gain for both benchmarks.
For drivers, the national average price of regular gasoline was $4.22 a gallon in the report from AAA, the American Automobile Association, on Oct. 30. That was 5 cents lower than a week earlier.
The average was $4.46 a gallon a month earlier and $3.04 a gallon a year earlier, according to the same AAA figures. Crude oil prices above $100 a barrel were limiting further declines at the pump, AAA said.
October ended with crude prices high, gasoline prices elevated from a year earlier, and the question of who attacked the tanker still unanswered.
