With Iran and Israel in conflict, oil traders brace for supply turmoil
Oil-watchers are bracing for a further price rally after Israeli strikes on Iranian energy assets heightened the risk to Middle East supplies.
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Israel temporarily knocked out a natural gas processing facility linked to the giant South Pars field, Iran's biggest, in an attack on Saturday, and targeted fuel storage tanks during strikes as part of its campaign against Tehran's nuclear program.
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While the attack was concentrated on the Islamic Republic's domestic energy system rather than exports to international markets, oil traders and analysts are preparing for more turmoil after prices surged the most in three years on Friday.
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Despite U.S. sanctions, Iran remains the third-biggest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Its allies in Yemen, the Houthi militants, have harassed ships in the region and Tehran has in the past threatened to halt the Strait of Hormuz, a critical transit point in the Persian Gulf. It has, however, never blockaded the key maritime chokepoint.
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'The escalating, likely prolonged, conflict and its expansion to economic targets with civilian casualties should build some more risk premium into crude early this week,' said Bob McNally, president and founder of Rapidan Energy Advisers LLC and a former White House energy official.
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West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. benchmark, rallied as much as 14 per cent on Friday before settling near US$73 a barrel. A closure of Hormuz could propel international prices to as high as US$130, JPMorgan Chase & Co. has predicted. A jump in oil would add to inflation pressures around the world.
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Israel's strike on Saturday triggered a powerful explosion and fire at the onshore Phase 14 gas processing plant and forced the shutdown of a production platform at the South Pars field, according to a report from the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
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'Now that threshold has been crossed, there will be questions about whether Israel is going to target more Iranian energy infrastructure,' said Richard Bronze, head of geopolitics at consultant Energy Aspects Ltd. 'We appear to be in an escalatory cycle.'
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Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is joined on stage by Pastor Paula White-Cain, Senior Advisor to the White House Faith Office, during an event at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Jerusalem on July 27, 2025. Photo by GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP via Getty Images Someone really needs to reacquaint Benjamin Netanyahu with the 1988 Hamas Charter. Quickly. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account In particular, they need to show the Israeli Prime Minister articles 10 and 30. In those, in their governing document, Hamas says that it will use 'word and deed' to wage Jihad – which has come to mean holy war. Article 30 is pretty specific: 'Ji had is not confined to the carrying of arms and the confrontation of the enemy. The effective word, the good article, the useful book, support and solidarity – all these are elements of the Jihad for Allah's sake.' In other words, propaganda. What the terror organization is telling everyone, here, is that they wage war with words and images just as much as bombs and bullets. Implicitly, Hamas has always acknowledged that its desired genocide of Jews and infidels is a daunting military challenge. Propaganda, however, is Hamas' real forte. At that, they excel. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. So, in the information war, Hamas – and its axis, with Hezbollah and Iran and Qatar and Russia and China – is winning. You only need to cast your eye over the offerings of most news or social media – or look at what is happening in the streets – to see that it is true. Israel is losing the propaganda war. It is getting its ass kicked. Netanyahu is a big part of the reason. Israel's leader is propped up by a coalition of far right religious extremists, and adamantly refuses to let anyone else speak for Israel in the West. He has been in power too long, and the majority – inside and outside of Israel – are weary of him. 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Bots and fake accounts pushed out denials of atrocities that were swiftly seen by tens of millions of people before the war had even started. Yet another Hamas win. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. On one front in the propaganda war, Hamas has recently scored its biggest victory, however. And that is the Gaza famine story. No one – Israel included – disputes that innocent Gaza civilians desperately need more food, water and aid. What is debated is who to blame. More than 1,000 trucks containing aid now sit idle at four different distribution centers in the Gaza Strip. Israel and the United States have paid for that food and aid. But the United Nations refuses to help distribute it. And Hamas keeps trying to steal it. You would never know any of that, however, by looking at the headlines or Instagram. So, Hamas scored its biggest propaganda victory on Monday morning – when US President Donald Trump recklessly blamed Israel for most of the famine crisis. Hamas wins again. In sum, Israel is losing the propaganda war. It needs to tell its story better, and it needs a better storyteller. Time is running out. If Israel does not take corrective action soon, the damage will be permanent. Kinsella's book about antisemitism and the propaganda war against Israel and the West, The Hidden Hand, is being published by Penguin Random House in late 2025. Wrestling Golf World Canada Canada
