The most heavily traded contract for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, settled at $97.89 before jumping 2.4% to $100.29 early Wednesday.
U.S. benchmark crude gained 1.9% to $94.77 a barrel.
When oil prices spike, prices of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel also rise. That can increase the cost of traveling and of goods that must be transported quickly like fresh food or shipped long distances like furniture and appliances.
Markets reacted after the U.S. military reported striking five Iranian tankers in response to attempted missile attacks on a Navy warship and after attacks by an Iranian-backed Houthi rebel group ignited fires at oil facilities in Saudi Arabia.
Crude oil prices shot up after Israel and the United States initiated a war with Iran, and they have fluctuated a great deal during the more than six months since then. The fighting has halted most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil supply passed before the war began.
Brent increased from about $70 to $100 a barrel for much of March, April and May. In July, prices swung between $72 and $102 again, reflecting rising and falling hopes that the U.S. and Iran would agree on a plan that would allow stranded tankers to move oil out of the Persian Gulf safely.
“In our view, reaching a durable deal before the U.S. midterm elections is increasingly unlikely, and it could remain elusive even beyond that,” Bank of America analysts said in a Tuesday research note.
