EMEA crude futures fell in after-hours trading on Wednesday as markets assessed the impact of renewed US-Iran conflict, including the reimposition of the US blockade of Iranian ports and fresh military strikes, which further threaten to disrupt global energy supplies.
Brent crude futures eased by 0.13% to $84.69 per barrel, while Murban crude futures retreated by 4.1% to $78.54/bbl.
On Wednesday, the US launched a fresh round of attacks on Iran, hours after President Trump said military strikes would intensify next week if Tehran does not cooperate in peace negotiations.
US Central Command said in a social media post on X that it had begun launching a wave of strikes against Iran at 6 a.m. ET on Wednesday.
The strikes are designed to further degrade military capabilities that Iranian forces have used to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, US Centcom posted.
Late on Tuesday, the US hit dozens of military targets near the strategic waterway and Iranian coastal areas in an operation that lasted seven hours.
Iran, in response, has launched a wave of attacks on multiple Gulf countries, and Kuwait is bearing the brunt of the military strikes as Tehran steps up its assault on US allies in the Gulf region after an interim peace agreement with Washington collapsed.
Kuwait's Ministry of Defense said the strikes, which began Tuesday evening, involved five cruise and one ballistic missile as well as 33 drones.
The Gulf state has been one of the worst-hit countries, with its oil refineries, the headquarters of Kuwait Petroleum, the airport and other critical infrastructure coming under assault multiple times.
Soojin Kim, research analyst at MUFG, said fresh US strikes targeting Iran's coastal military infrastructure and continued attacks on commercial vessels have kept tanker traffic through the Hormuz severely disrupted, raising concerns over global oil supplies.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said on Wednesday that its retaliatory strikes targeted multiple US facilities in Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan, including logistics, command, and military infrastructure.
The escalation in fighting comes after US Centcom said it had effectively resumed its blockade on Iranian shipping to and from its ports and coastal areas.
Meanwhile, the security situation in the Hormuz has deteriorated over the past week, with the International Maritime Organization saying the strategic waterway remains too dangerous for commercial vessels to transit.
The latest data from Kpler showed 21 confirmed crossings through the Hormuz on July 14, marking a slight increase in activity, with commercial ships carrying crude oil, liquefied petroleum gas and methanol among those movements.
However, despite the uptick, shipping patterns indicate that ship operators remain cautious amid deteriorating security conditions. Kpler said three additional confirmed attacks on vessels off the coast of Oman raise the reported number of incidents in the region to 56.