Oil hits $87 per barrel again after latest U.S. strikes on Iran, looming blockade

EnergyOil hits $87 per barrel again after latest U.S. strikes on Iran and looming coastal blockadeThe price of international Brent crude oil has risen more than 15% since Sunday to levels not seen since June. Listen to this article with a free profile00:0000:00Commercial vessels and oil tankers preparing to transit through the Strait of Hormuz, wait in the Gulf of Oman on June 17.Shady Alassar / Anadolu via Getty ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleJuly 14, 2026, 8:24 AM EDTBy Steve KopackThe price of crude oil on global markets continued to surge Tuesday, with international oil benchmark Brent rising for a second straight day to more than $87 per barrel, the first time since June it has traded at that price.Subscribe to read this story ad-freeGet unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.U.S. crude oil also moved higher, rising 4% from Monday to more than $81 per barrel. Since the start of trading on Sunday night, Brent oil has risen more than 15% and U.S. crude oil has risen more than 12%. The moves higher came just hours before the U.S. was set to reimpose a blockade on Iranian ports and ships in the Strait of Hormuz, and after U.S. Central Command completed five hours worth of fresh strikes on Iran overnight. “U.S. forces successfully struck military targets across Iran including Bushehr, Chah Bahar, Jask, Konarak, Abu Musa, and Bandar Abbas to further degrade Iran’s ability to attack commercial shipping,” the U.S. military said Monday night in a statement on social media site X.The U.S. military’s naval blockade on Iran’s coastline and ports, as well as all Iranian-associated vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, will go into effect at 4:00 p.m. ET, 12:30 a.m. Wednesday in Tehran.“The return of the U.S. blockade is much more impactful for markets than the previous suspension of the sanction waiver on Iranian oil,” ING commodities analysts wrote in a note Tuesday. “The Memorandum of Understanding is starting to look well and truly dead,” they added, ref...