Crude oil nears $97 a barrel, diesel at highest since 2022
Crude oil climbed for a fourth straight trading session Thursday, pushing international benchmark Brent above $97 a barrel and driving diesel to its highest average price since 2022.
Thursday's national diesel average of $5.78 per gallon marks a jump of more than 53% from the $3.76 per gallon baseline recorded just before the Iran war broke out in late February, according to NBC News .
After topping $97 intraday, Brent settled back to $96.20 per barrel, a gain of 57 cents, according to CNBC . Oil prices have gained more than 7% this week. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, closed the session up 85 cents at $91.86 per barrel.
Unleaded gasoline's national average reached $4.14 per gallon Thursday, a two-cent increase over the prior day, according to AAA data tracked by NBC News.
Two overlapping disruptions are squeezing global diesel supplies. The Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint that carried close to a fifth of global oil supplies before hostilities erupted, has seen tanker traffic drop sharply since fighting began. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNBC on Wednesday that more than 17 million barrels of oil transited Hormuz on Monday under U.S. military protection, a wartime record. ING commodities analysts estimate Persian Gulf oil exports are currently running at roughly 50% of pre-war levels.
At the same time, after Ukrainian drones damaged refineries inside Russia, Moscow suspended diesel exports until October, citing domestic supply concerns. Because Russia ranks second globally in diesel exports, ING analysts concluded that the two crises together are removing something in the neighborhood of 20% of the diesel that normally moves by sea.
Fighting flared again this week when Kuwait's air defenses engaged Iranian missiles and drones, and the U.S. and Iran traded military strikes for the first time since July. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he does not expect the current round of hostilities to last long or escalate further.
ING analysts identified a pair of prerequisites for any real easing of fuel costs: more oil moving through the Persian Gulf and Russia returning to the export market.
The energy price surge carries broader economic implications. Because diesel runs the tractors, trucks, and freight networks that move food from field to store, a sustained price spike at current levels risks feeding through to consumers at the grocery checkout by autumn. Federal Reserve governor Christopher Waller said Thursday that he expects upcoming inflation readings to be manageable and that energy prices have not yet spread into other goods and services.
Oil prices surged earlier this week after U.S. forces struck Iranian targets in the strait Tuesday, a retaliatory move following Iranian attacks on vessels in the waterway. Gas prices first climbed back above $4 a gallon in July as the U.S. reimposed a naval blockade around Iranian ports after a brief ceasefire collapsed.
