Oil Prices Jump as Middle East Tensions Build

Oil prices surged on Monday after more signs showed that peace talks between Iran and the United States were faltering.Brent, the international oil price benchmark, rose over 5 percent to around $93 a barrel, on course for its biggest increase in almost a month.West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S.

benchmark, rose over 6 percent to around $93 a barrel, set for its biggest jump since the end of April.Still, prices remain well below wartime highs.Iranian and American negotiators have been talking about extending a cease-fire and reopening the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial shipping lane for oil and other commodities that runs along Iran’s southern border.

But the talks may be at risk of collapsing after Iran, the United States and Israel engaged in new attacks and threatened more hostilities.The United States said it carried out strikes in Iran over the weekend, the latest in a series of attacks in the past week.Iran’s Revolutionary Guards announced that it had struck an American air base in retaliation for a U.S.

attack on a communications facility.The possibility of continued fighting has raised concerns about how long the world’s stockpiles of oil and fuels will last if the strait does not reopen.“There has been quiet panic building,” said Helima Croft, the head of global commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets.The war with Iran has forced Persian Gulf countries to slash output by more than 14 million barrels a day, according to the International Energy Agency.That amounts to almost 14 percent of prewar global supply.A variety of measures have helped to blunt the impact of those losses.

China has been importing less oil than normal.Dozens of countries agreed to release oil and fuels from their emergency stores.

And the United States, Canada, Brazil and other oil producers have been exporting more, according to the I.E.A.In addition, high prices have reduced demand for oil.But energy executives and analysts have expressed growing concern that inve...