President Trump’s rejection of the latest Iranian peace proposal sent crude oil prices as he called it a “piece of garbage” and description of the ceasefire as being “on life support” had a reverberation on oil prices as they rose about 3% on Monday.
The obvious conclusion was the Strait of Hormuz will be closed with no clear end in sight to the war and further limitations on crude oil shipments out of the Middle East.
West Texas Intermediate crude finished up $2.65 or 2.78% at $98.07 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
After reaching a high of nearly $106 a barrel, Brent crude futures settled up $2.92 or 2.88% at $104.21 a barrel.
The gains for the two benchmarks came after both recorded 6% weekly losses last week.
The President’s rejection was of a demand by Tehran for compensation of war damage and expressed sovereignty over the strait and an end to the U.S. naval blockade. Iran also wanted a guarantee of no further attacks and the lifting of sanctions.
Natural gas prices finished up for the day, closing at $2.916 MMBtu with a gain of $0.159 or 5.77%.
Monday turned out to be strong day for Oklahoma energy stocks as the majority recorded gains, including Mammoth Energy Services with a nearly 22% jump in share costs following the release of its first quarter financials. LSB Industries gained 7% while SandRidge Energy rose 5%.