Oil advanced after a tanker carrying Qatari crude was hit during a flare-up in attacks between the US and Iran, straining a ceasefire and hampering shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Brent jumped as much as 1.9% to $73.39 a barrel, after closing below pre-war levels in the previous session, while West Texas Intermediate was near $70. Among tit-for-tat assaults that started Thursday, the US over the weekend struck Iranian military targets near the vital waterway after Tehran attacked the tanker following an earlier strike on a container ship, with both sides blaming the other for breaching the ceasefire.
