Iran Lists Gulf Data Centers as Strike Targets, Pushing Brent Past $117

Brent crude traded above $117 a barrel on Friday, the highest print since April, after Iranian officials said Tehran would strike Gulf oil facilities, undersea cables, data centers, and artificial intelligence infrastructure if a joint US-Israeli offensive opens. The international benchmark rose about 3.5 percent intraday before easing; it settled just over $116, up more than 2.7 percent from the prior close.

Reports that the United States is weighing renewed strikes on Iran drove the move. Richard Hunter, a broker at Interactive Investor, said the turn away from diplomacy was enough to spike prices, and that the fighting many expected to be brief is now entering its eighth month.

The sequence behind the jump runs through this week. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said Wednesday it struck four commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint through which Gulf oil shipments pass. The US State Department then ordered some diplomats and families of US government employees to leave Saudi Arabia, where Houthi attacks have continued. Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at Wealth Club, said Houthi strikes on Saudi facilities intensified this week and that projectiles are still being fired at ships crossing the strait. She also pointed to Ukrainian bombardment of Russian diesel refineries as a separate pressure on supply.

Brent stood near $72 a barrel in February, before the war with Iran began, and touched $126 by the end of April as tensions climbed. Friday's settlement at just over $116 keeps crude near that April range.

Attention now turns to the November 3 US elections. Streeter said fears are growing that American and Israeli forces may be ordered to strike Iran's energy infrastructure after the vote.