ROI-Energy Watch: No summer lull

In the Middle East, the escalatory cycle has deepened after U.S. forces hit Iran for a ninth consecutive day on Monday while Iran targeted U.S. military assets and equipment as well as civilian infrastructure across the region.

Oil and gas transits through the Strait of Hormuz have dropped to a trickle over the past week, and Iran continues to target vessels trying to cross the narrow waterway through the Omani route. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards said the strait would remain unsafe as long as what it called U.S. "aggression" in the region continued, warning that "this passage will not be safe for the transit of petrochemical products, nor even a single drop of oil and gas."

Four vessels made the transit through Hormuz on Sunday, down from eight the previous day, and nearly 50 daily transits before the conflict, LSEG data showed.