Crude oil prices surged more than 3 per cent on Monday, crossing $116 per barrel, as Iran braced for a potential US ground invasion.
Brent Crude, the global benchmark, settled at $116 per barrel — just three dollars below its all-time high of $119 recorded on March 19 when Iran had threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz.
The latest spike came after Iran declared on Sunday night that it was fully prepared for a US ground invasion.
The country’s parliament speaker warned that Tehran was waiting for the arrival of US troops to “set them on fire” and “punish” their regional allies.
The warning followed further widening of the Middle East conflict over the weekend with the entry of the Houthi group (Ansarallah) into the Iranian war.
Asia’s main stock indexes witnessed steep declines on Monday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 and South Korea’s KOSPI both falling more than 4 per cent as of 1:30 GMT.
The threat of closure of the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for the US-Israel war on Iran has severely disrupted energy supplies from the key global waterway.
Since the start of the war, oil prices have climbed more than 60 per cent, driving up global fuel prices and forcing many countries to adopt emergency energy conservation measures.
Experts have warned that oil prices are likely to keep rising unless maritime traffic in the strait returns to normal levels.
US President Donald Trump has threatened to “obliterate” Iran’s energy infrastructure if Tehran does not relinquish its stranglehold on the waterway by the April 6 deadline.
