Brent Rises 5% to $105.46 on Tanker Attacks in Hormuz

Brent rose 5% on Thursday, October 8, 2026, and traded at $105.46 a barrel, its highest level in nearly a month, after a week of tanker attacks in the Strait of Hormuz that CNN documented as the most intense of the conflict. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) advanced by the same margin, to $92.82.

On Wednesday a tanker was hit by projectiles north of the coast of Qatar, with casualties, according to UK Maritime Trade Operations, the most recent attack in a streak that The Guardian places at its highest level of the conflict. Kpler counted 10 tankers struck in the strait between September 28 and October 4, above the previous weekly maximum of six, and traffic fell to seven crossings on Tuesday, the lowest figure since July 23. For Mexico the transmission runs two ways: Brent is the benchmark used to price Mexico's export blend, so its rise flows into the estimate of oil revenues, and the country buys gasoline and diesel in the U.S. Gulf, the region now facing a hurricane.

Hurricane Isaias, the first of the Atlantic season, led Shell and Chevron to cut production in the Gulf of Mexico, so the supply restriction adds to that of Hormuz. On inventories, the International Energy Agency (IEA) is holding to the 400-million-barrel plan agreed in March: around 325 million have already been released and close to 100 million are still pending delivery to the market, including a diesel shipment for the G7, CNN reported. The impact is already visible in fuels: European diesel (ICE Gasoil) closed Wednesday up 6% and U.S. diesel averages $6.28 per gallon, according to AAA. Analyst Daniel Hynes, of ANZ, noted that Gulf producers are taking on the risk of damage to their vessels because they have no alternative route to place their crude.

The next data point is Isaias making landfall, expected Friday or Saturday, and how quickly the 100 million barrels the IEA has yet to place reach the market. The next weekly reading on attacks and crossings in Hormuz will indicate whether Brent holds $105.

This article was written with the assistance of artificial intelligence from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.