Oil prices rise 1% as hostilities worsen in the Middle East
XLE•Oil prices extend gains on Middle East tensions
Oil extended gains by around 1% on Wednesday as President Donald Trump reimposed a naval blockade on all Iranian ports and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps threatened to close "all other export corridors that benefit the U.S. and its allies".
Brent futures LCOc1 gained 69 cents, or 0.8%, to $85.42 a barrel at 0950 GMT. West Texas Intermediate futures CLc1 rose 73 cents, or 0.9%, to $80.07 a barrel.
Oil prices settled up 2% at a one-month high on Tuesday as attacks exacerbated a supply disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas passed prior to the beginning of the Iran war.
Threats to key shipping routes raise supply concerns
"Regional energy exports are either shared by all, or denied to all," Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement carried by Iran's IRNA state news agency on Wednesday.
