Brent crude futures rose above $80/bl as trading resumed in Asia on Monday following a weekend of escalating violence in the Middle East.
Front-month May Ice Brent futures surged by 13pc to a high of $82.17/bl when markets opened, up by $9.30/bl from the close on 27 February. Prices immediately eased from those highs and were trading at $79.55/bl at 7.35am Singapore time (23:35 GMT), up by 9.2pc.
US crude futures also rose. Nymex April WTI traded as high as $75.33/bl, up by 12pc or $8.31/bl from the previous close, before similarly falling back.
Prices surged as the US and Iran continued to exchange missile attacks following the death of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a US-Israeli attack on 28 February.
The hostilities are threatening to disrupt supplies of oil and other commodities from the region. At least three vessels have been hit by explosive projectiles near the strait of Hormuz since the conflict began. Port infrastructure has also been damaged.
The impact of the continuing hostilities on prices outweighed a decision by eight core Opec+ members to resume increasing crude output in April following a three-month pause, even as escalating tensions in the Mideast Gulf pose a major risk to the group's existing supplies.
Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Russia, the UAE, Algeria, Oman and Kazakhstan agreed on Sunday to raise their collective crude production ceiling by 206,000 b/d, a slight acceleration to the previous monthly increases of 137,000 b/d agreed for the months of October, November and December.
