Oil prices surpass $100 a barrel for first time since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine
Global oil prices rose to over $100 per barrel on March 8, as the war with Iran, Israel, and the United States escalates and expands across the Middle East.
This marks the first time prices have passed the $100-per-barrel mark since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The U.S.-Israeli war in Iran, launched on Feb. 28, triggered a surge in oil and gas prices globally. Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off a key transit route for 20% of the world's oil. Recent Israeli strikes have targeted Iran's oil facilities, and other refineries throughout the Middle East have come under fire.
Brent futures, the global benchmark for oil prices, increased 16% on March 8, near to $108 a barrel.
U.S. oil futures rose 18%, to about $108 a barrel — the highest price since July 2022. U.S. crude temporarily reached $110 a barrel the evening of March 8.
U.S. President Donald Trump dismissed the spike in a post on Truth Social, calling it a "small price to pay."
"Short term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over, is a very small price to pay for U.S.A., and World, Safety and Peace. ONLY FOOLS WOULD THINK DIFFERENTLY!" he wrote.
As fuel prices climb, Russia is poised to profit from the global energy crisis. The U.S. on March 6 granted Inida a temporary waiver allowing it to once again purchase Russian oil — and Washington has floated the possibility of lifting its own sanctions on Russian fuel lifting to mitigate the global supply shortage.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has also threatened to cut off gas supplies to Europe immediately if the EU doesn't back off its planned phaseout of Russian gas imports — speculating that the war in Iran may have changed Brussels' calculus.
Russia is the third-largest producer of oil in the world, after the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Brent crude prices leapt to over $100 per barrel, in some places surpassing $120 a barrel.
From December 2022, a price cap of $60 per barrel was imposed on seaborne Russian crude oil shipments to third countries by the EU, the U.K., and the G7 in order to undermine Russia's ability to fund the war.
