OIL prices surged Monday after a US destroyer fired on an Iranian-flagged cargo ship that tried to evade a US naval blockade in the Gulf of Oman Sunday, and Iran warned that it would soon retaliate against the “armed piracy” and the US military.
The standoff between Iran and the US prevented tankers from using the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf waterway that is crucial to global energy supplies.
The price of US crude oil increased 6.4 percent to $87.90 per barrel an hour after trading resumed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 5.8 percent to $95.64 per barrel.
The market reaction followed more than two days of lifted hopes and dashed expectations involving the strait. Crude prices plunged more than 9 percent Friday after Iran said it would fully reopen the strait, which it effectively controls, to commercial traffic.
This US Navy handout photograph released on April 17, 2026, by US Central Command Public Affairs shows USS Abraham Lincoln conducting blockade operations in the Arabian Sea on April 16, 2026. The US president said he was sending a delegation to Pakistan on April 20 for negotiations with Iran, while renewing his threats to destroy the country’s vital infrastructure if it didn’t agree a deal. AFP PHOTO / US NAVY / US CENTRAL COMMAND PUBLIC AFFAIRS
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Tehran reversed that decision and fired on several vessels Saturday after President Donald Trump said a US Navy blockade of Iranian ports would remain in effect. On Sunday, Trump said the US attacked and forcibly seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship that allegedly tried to get around the blockade. Iran’s joint military command vowed to respond.
Sunday’s higher prices wiped out much of the declines seen Friday, signaling renewed doubts about how soon ships will again transport the vast amounts oil the world gets from the Middle East.
Contracts for West Texas Intermediate and Brent jumped sharply Monday, days before the end of a two-week ceasefire.
The blockade of Iranian ports has been a significant sticking point in negotiations between the two countries, and state broadcaster IRIB cited Iranian sources as saying “there are currently no plans to participate in the next round of Iran-US talks” in Pakistan.
The Fars and Tasnim news agencies had earlier cited anonymous sources as saying “the overall atmosphere cannot be assessed as very positive,” adding that lifting the US blockade was a precondition for negotiations.
WTI jumped more than 7 percent at one point, while Brent piled on more than 6 percent.
There has so far been only a single, 21-hour negotiating session held in Islamabad on April 11 that ended inconclusively, though groundwork for fresh talks continued afterwards.
“We’re offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it,” Trump said in a social media post Sunday, while also renewing his threats against Iran’s infrastructure if a deal is not made.
But Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned that any attempt to pass through the strait without permission “will be considered cooperation with the enemy, and the offending vessel will be targeted.” Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said the blockade was “a violation” of the ceasefire.
A spokesman for the military’s central command center, Khatam Al-Anbiya, accused the United States of having “violated the ceasefire” that has been in place since April 8.
US President Donald Trump posted Sunday on Truth Social that after the Iranian vessel, Touska, ignored warnings to stop, the guided missile destroyer USS Spruance “stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engine room.”
“Right now, US Marines have custody of the vessel,” the US president added, “and are seeing what’s on board!” The incident comes with tensions high in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital conduit for the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas, which has been virtually closed since the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran seven weeks ago.
Iran briefly reopened the strait on Friday in recognition of an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire in Lebanon, but closed it again the following day in response to the United States maintaining its blockade on ships traveling to and from Iranian ports.
In an earlier post on Sunday, Trump accused Tehran of violating the ceasefire, which expires Wednesday, by launching attacks on Saturday in the vital shipping lane.