Brent Breaks $100 as the Houthis Turn a Threatened Blockade Into a Two-Tanker Fact
Riyadh moved its oil to the Red Sea when Hormuz shut. Now Iran's Houthi client is striking Saudi tankers there too — and for the first time in the war, both of the Kingdom's export doors are contested at once. Crude closed above $100. The bill, again, is Saudi.
Brent settled up 6.96 percent at about $100.65 on Friday — its first close above $100 since late May, and roughly 40 percent higher on the month — after the Houthis converted Monday's declared naval blockade of Saudi Arabia into fact. The movement claimed missile and drone strikes on two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea early Thursday, its first attacks on commercial hulls in months. Riyadh had rerouted export flow onto the Red Sea when Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz brought traffic there to a standstill; now roughly 2.5 million barrels a day of Saudi crude runs a gauntlet on the western exit too. Bab al-Mandeb carries an estimated 12 to 15 percent of global maritime trade. Both of Saudi Arabia's principal outlets are contested simultaneously for the first time.
Washington answered with ordnance: US Central Command struck IRGC missile and drone stores and air defenses to degrade Iran's ability to threaten shipping — the thirteenth consecutive night, and the first B-1 bomber run since fighting resumed. Trump threatened strikes "bigger" still and vowed to destroy "one bridge or power plant" for every ship Iran touches in Hormuz. Iran's IRGC claimed retaliatory fire on US positions in Kuwait and Jordan, including a communications tower — pushing the strike cycle onto GCC soil rather than at Israel. Mediators from Qatar, Egypt, Oman and Pakistan floated a ten-day ceasefire to revive last month's Islamabad understanding; Washington wants a longer pause.
Assessment: This is the escalation Gulf planners feared most — not one chokepoint but both at once, stripping Riyadh of its fallback and turning a US–Iran fight into a direct economic siege of the Kingdom. It hands the Houthis leverage out of all proportion to their arsenal. Watch three tells. First, whether independent tracking confirms the two-tanker strike — as filed it is a Houthi combatant claim, and the market has already priced it as real. Second, whether Riyadh is pushed toward a harder military role or an accelerated ceasefire. Third, the ten-day window itself: the gap between Tehran's ten days and Washington's demand for longer is where the next escalation lives.