Oil prices climbed in early trading Sunday after the U.S. said it would blockade Iranian ports beginning Monday, a move that traders said heightened concerns about tighter shipping routes through the region. The announcement came against the backdrop of an Iran war in which crude benchmarks have swung sharply, according to market tracking cited by The Associated Press.
The U.S. said its enforcement would begin Monday and would target vessels entering or leaving Iranian ports and coastal areas on the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. U.S. Central Command said the blockade would be “enforced impartially against vessels of all nations.”
Central Command also said the blockade would not stop normal transit by ships traveling between non-Iranian ports. That distinction matters because the Strait of Hormuz is the narrow waterway where many tankers pass to reach global crude and product markets, and the U.S. message suggested some traffic could continue even as access to Iranian port areas would be curtailed.
In early trading Sunday, the price of U.S. crude rose 8% to $104.24 a barrel, while Brent crude—used as the international benchmark—rose 7% to $102.29 a barrel. The reported moves underscored how quickly expectations about shipping access can translate into changes in headline crude prices.
The AP report said Brent crude had moved from about $70 per barrel before the war in late February to more than $119 at times. It also noted that on Friday—ahead of peace talks—Brent for June delivery fell 0.8% to $95.20 a barrel.
Beyond the near-term benchmark reaction, analysts pointed to different interpretations of what the port blockade could mean for negotiations with Iran. Claudio Galimberti, chief economist of Rystad Energy, said the blockade would raise prices but might “move the needle on talks,” describing it as a negotiation tactic that could lead to a full opening of Hormuz.
Galimberti added that the market tightening would arrive quickly, saying it “means the oil markets will be even tighter than before.” He said the tactic would mean “more pain now, but more gain later,” as oil markets adjust to constrained access.
Jim Krane, an energy research fellow at Rice University, said the blockade might be effective as a longer-term approach to imposing economic pain on Iran, but he argued it would not be a good short-term negotiating tactic when the oil market is already under strain. Krane said additional disruptions could deepen price pressure, arguing that if the “deficit to the oil market takes another jump” it would impose pain on “every person on Earth that’s subject to market oil prices.”
The report also highlighted the scale of the shipping corridor and the level of activity since a ceasefire. Around a fifth of the world’s traded oil typically flows through the Strait of Hormuz each day, and it said marine trackers have counted over 40 commercial ships crossing since the ceasefire began, despite limits on traffic in the days following the truce.
As traders weigh Monday’s enforcement against the prospect of continued transit for non-Iranian shipments, the next market moves may hinge on how quickly tanker routing and loading patterns adapt to the blockade’s reach.