Oil Jumps Above $100 a Barrel Again As US Announces Strait of Hormuz Blockade Starts Monday

President Donald Trump attends the UFC 327 at Kaseya Center, Saturday, April 11, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool)

The price for a barrel of oil spiked on Sunday night when futures markets opened, following Vice President JD Vance returning from a meeting with Iranian leaders in Pakistan that failed to strike a deal to end the war.

Brent crude oil, the global benchmark, jumped more than 7% to $102.02 per barrel about a half hour after futures markets opened. That increase came a few hours after President Donald Trump announced a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. 

Here was part of the president’s lengthy post on the decision:

At some point, we will reach an ‘ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO IN, ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO OUT’ basis, but Iran has not allowed that to happen by merely saying, ‘There may be a mine out there somewhere,’ that nobody knows about but them. THIS IS WORLD EXTORTION, and Leaders of Countries, especially the United States of America, will never be extorted.

I have also instructed our Navy to seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran. No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas. We will also begin destroying the mines the Iranians laid in the Straits. Any Iranian who fires at us, or at peaceful vessels, will be BLOWN TO HELL!

Trump went on Sunday Morning Futures on Fox News shortly after and warned gas prices could go “a little bit higher.”

U.S. Central Command later posted on X the blockade will start at 10:00 a.m. ET on Monday.

“The blockade will be enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman,” the post read. “CENTCOM forces will not impede freedom of navigation for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports.”

Fox News chief political analyst Brit Hume weighed in afterwards, saying it was “not a full blockade, only a quarantine of ships leaving or entering Iran.”

The blockade will start 44 days after joint U.S. and Israeli forces killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Feb. 28. The price for a barrel of oil the day before Operation Epic Fury launched was $67.02; the price has fluctuated wildly in the 1.5 months since then and has been above $100 per barrel several times.

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