President Donald Trump said on Friday that US forces and Iran exchanged fire in the Strait of Hormuz, a clash that sent the global Brent benchmark sharply higher before it eased back. The spike — to nearly $103 a barrel at one point — undercut any talk of a nigeria oil price drop and pushed oil back toward wartime levels.
Brent rose almost 3% on the trading day and traded nearer $100 a barrel after the initial jump, a dramatic move from around $70 a barrel before the conflict began. Trump told reporters that three US destroyers were involved in the latest exchange of fire, that several Iranian small boats had been completely destroyed, and that missiles targeting the US ships were easily knocked down. He told News the Iran strikes were "just a love tap."
The direct numbers make the moment unmistakable: almost 3% intraday gain for the global benchmark, a peak of nearly $103 a barrel, and the contrast with pre-war pricing at about $70 a barrel. The Strait of Hormuz — through which more than a fifth of the world's oil and gas usually passes — is the focal point for that price swing, and traders reacted quickly, treating the April ceasefire as fragile.
Context matters here. On 28 February, the US and Israel attacked Iran, an action that officially marked the start of the wider war referenced in market coverage, and a ceasefire was agreed in April. The exchange of fire on Friday occurred as US ships were transiting the strait, and it briefly reversed months of lower prices and relative calm. Traders, already unsettled, saw the ceasefire as brittle; Huifeng Chang summed that sentiment in a single word — "fragile."
The narrative is not clean. Iran's military initially accused the US of violating the April ceasefire by targeting Iranian ships, including an oil tanker moving toward the Strait of Hormuz, and said aerial attacks were carried out along the coastline near the strait. Iranian state media said the US had violated the ceasefire and later reported the situation was back to normal. Tehran also said its forces responded by attacking US vessels and inflicting significant damage.
The American account diverged. The US said it made self-defence strikes in response to what it described as unprovoked Iranian attacks as its ships headed out of the Gulf through the strait. The US military denied that its ships had been hit, and US Central Command said it was not seeking to escalate the conflict. Trump, for his part, said on Friday that the US-Iran ceasefire is still in place and also warned negotiators that "The talks are going very well, but they have to understand if it doesn't get signed, they're going to have a lot of pain," adding, "I believe they want the deal more than I do."
The tension between the two accounts is the story’s engine: Iran says it struck back and did damage; the US says its ships were not hit and that strikes were defensive. Markets priced that uncertainty. A sudden jump in Brent erased the conditions that had pushed prices down to roughly $70 a barrel before the war, and traders moved decisively as the strait — a choke point for more than a fifth of the world’s oil and gas — flickered back into danger.
The immediate consequence is clear: the market has swapped a narrative of easing prices for one of renewed volatility, and that shift makes a nigeria oil price drop unlikely while the waters remain contested. With both sides offering incompatible versions of the exchange and US Central Command saying it does not seek escalation, the most probable near-term outcome is further price swings tied to any new flare-ups around the Strait of Hormuz.
