Oil, gas prices rise rapidly amid Mideast conflict

Uncertainty looms over industry and its cargo ships as Trump demands surrender.’

- BY CATHY BUSSEWITZ

SMOKE RISES OVER buildings in Tehran after explosions were reported in Iran's capital Saturday night.

NEW YORK - The price of oil surged higher and showed no signs of halting its rapid climb a week after the U.S. and Israel launched major attacks on Iran that escalated into a war in the Middle East.

The conflict, in which nearly every country in the Middle East has sustained damage from missiles or drone strikes, has left ships that carry millions of barrels of oil a day stranded in the Persian Gulf, unable to safely pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Gulf that is bordered on its north side by Iran.

The shipping disruption and damage to key Middle East oil and gas facilities has interrupted supplies from some of the world's largest oil producers. Kuwait, for example, said Saturday that it would reduce its oil production as a "precautionary" measure due to the war, which could jolt global energy markets even further.

Oil prices surpassed $90 a barrel Friday, with American crude settling at $90.90, up 36% from a week ago, and Brent, the international standard, climbing 27% over the course of the week to land at $92.69.

The fallout is ratcheting up what consumers and business will pay for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, with some drivers already feeling it at the pump.

"It's crazy. It's not needed, especially at a time when people are already struggling, but not unexpected from all this turmoil that's going on," said Mark Doran, who was pumping gas in Middlebury, Vt., on Friday. "I don't think there's been an end in sight to any Middle East conflict that's been started by us, so the fact that they say that there's going to be an end that quickly is not believable, and the Middle East is, you know, a place that the U.S. is not going to solve."