Midday trading on Thursday saw WTI contracts push higher, with the July delivery rising 20cts to $90.29/bbl and August gaining 25cts to reach $88.59/bbl. Conversely, Brent crude struggled to maintain momentum; the August ICE contract slipped 24cts to $92.86/bbl, while September futures dipped slightly to $91.52/bbl. Refined products mirrored this volatility, as July RBOB climbed 4.07cts to $3.1506/gal, even as July ULSD retreated 2.09cts to $3.5917/gal.

The market’s tension stems from an intensifying military standoff. U.S. Central Command confirmed strikes on Iranian surveillance and communications nodes on Wednesday, prompting an alleged retaliatory drone attack against the U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain. Trump’s stated intent to escalate these operations and occupy the nation’s primary oil export hub introduces a significant risk premium to global energy pricing, overshadowing standard supply-demand fundamentals.