WTI Crude Oil Futures Rise Above $98 a Barrel; U.S. Oil Fund Jumps 4%. Israel Warns Iran It Will Escalate Attacks

WTI crude oil futures rose 3.86% to $98.13 a barrel; Brent oil futures rose 2.65% to $110.87 a barrel.

Oil stocks and ETFs rose, USO up over 4%; USO, Halliburton up over 3%; Indonesia Energy, Exxon Mobil, Occidental up around 2%.

The US and Israel targeted the Middle East’s biggest flat-steel producer in airstrikes on Friday, Iran’s semi-official Fars news just reported, citing its own reporters on the ground.

Esfahan-based Mobarakeh Steel Co. is a massive quasi-state industrial company and one of several big steel makers in Iran, most of which are based either in Esfahan or Yazd provinces.

The company was sanctioned by the US Treasury in 2020. According to Fars, the attacks hit an electrical substation serving the plant, an alloy steel production line and storage depots.

Israel will escalate and expand attacks on Iran to include targets that “assist the regime in building and operating its means of warfare against Israeli citizens,” according to Defense Minister Israel Katz.

Katz says he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iran against attacking civilians but the firing has continued.

Meanwhile, strikes on Iran continue apace, with Israel saying it hit ballistic missile and aerial defense systems production sites across Iran overnight.

A US naval escort program through the Strait of Hormuz is physically unfeasible, chief data and analytics officer at Pole Star Global Saleem Khan says. The narrow 21-mile stretch makes any ship passing through “a sitting duck,” he adds.

This is a message Iran has conveyed a number of times.

On one hand, officials have repeatedly said access to the Persian Gulf through Hormuz is open, except for vessels associated with the US and Israel. In practice, however, transit through the vital waterway for Gulf oil producers has remained almost shut, with only a trickle of ships making the voyage.

The Iranian parliament is working on a draft bill that would impose a fee on vessels seeking safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.