Oil Prices Today, September 3, 2026: Brent Holds Near $95 as Iran War Keeps Hormuz Supply Risk High

Oil prices stayed sharply elevated on Thursday, September 3, as the war involving the United States and Iran kept one of the world’s most important energy routes under severe pressure. Brent crude remained around the mid-$90s a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude traded near $90.

The market pulled back from its latest highs early Thursday, but the bigger story has not changed: traders are still putting a large geopolitical risk premium into oil because movements through the Strait of Hormuz remain far below normal levels. Latest oil prices on September 3 included:

• Brent crude: about $94-$95 a barrel in Thursday trading
• WTI crude: about $90-$91 a barrel
• ICE November Brent: $94.36 a barrel at 6:12 a.m. GMT
• November Brent change at that point: down about 1.33%
• Wednesday Brent settlement: $95.55 a barrel
• Tuesday Brent settlement: $94.65 a barrel
• Tuesday Brent gain: $4.16, or 4.6%
• Tuesday WTI settlement: $90.22 a barrel
• Tuesday WTI gain: $4.46, or 5.2%

Official ICE Brent data showed November Brent at $94.36 early Thursday. Reuters later reported Brent around $95.07 and WTI near $90.51 before prices eased further during the global trading session.

That means oil has given back only part of the sharp gains made during the latest escalation. Brent surged more than 4% on Tuesday before rising again Wednesday as the United States and Iran exchanged some of their most serious attacks in weeks.

For investors watching Wednesday’s oil market, Thursday’s decline does not yet look like a return to normal conditions. The physical risks around Middle East exports remain unusually high. The Strait of Hormuz is at the center of those concerns.

Only six commodity vessels passed through the waterway on Wednesday, according to shipping data cited by Reuters. Earlier in the week, preliminary data showed traffic at around five vessels in a day, compared with a recent 10-day average of roughly 14. Ships operating with tracking systems switched off are not included in those counts.

The disruption matters because Hormuz is normally one of the most important oil routes on Earth. The International Energy Agency says:

• About 20 million barrels a day of crude oil and petroleum products passed through Hormuz in 2025
• That represented roughly 25% of global seaborne oil trade
• Around 80% of those oil flows went to Asia
• Nearly 15 million barrels a day of crude alone moved through Hormuz in 2025
• China and India together received about 44% of those crude exports
• Only about 3.5 million to 5.5 million barrels a day of alternative pipeline capacity can bypass the strait

The IEA Hormuz factsheet shows why even a partial disruption can quickly become a global problem. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have some routes that can bypass the waterway, but Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain remain heavily dependent on it. The disruption has already been dramatic.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, oil and petroleum-liquid flows through Hormuz averaged only 4.9 million barrels a day during the second quarter of 2026. That was down from 21.6 million barrels a day in the fourth quarter of 2025, before the conflict began.

Those figures mean second-quarter flows were roughly 77% below the late-2025 level. The official EIA energy outlook also showed:

• Hormuz flows in Q4 2025: 21.6 million barrels a day
• Hormuz flows in Q1 2026: 14.9 million barrels a day
• Hormuz flows in Q2 2026: 4.9 million barrels a day
• World oil supply in Q2 2026: 99.7 million barrels a day

Fresh attacks on ships have made that risk even harder for traders to ignore. Two supertankers carrying Saudi crude were struck by projectiles near the Strait of Hormuz late Monday. Saudi Arabia said Wednesday that an Iranian attack on one tanker owned by its national shipping company killed two Filipino sailors.

Iran has also added more ships to a list of vessels it considers non-compliant. Those ships could face fines, confiscation or detention if they attempt to pass through the strait, according to information published on an Iranian government website and reported by Reuters.

Those developments help explain why Brent can remain close to $95 even when prices fall during an individual trading session. Another factor supporting oil is the latest U.S. inventory report.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday that commercial crude inventories, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, fell by 4.5 million barrels in the week ending August 28. Latest U.S. inventory figures included:

• Commercial crude inventories: down 4.5 million barrels
• Total commercial crude inventories: 424.5 million barrels
• Crude inventories versus five-year average: about 1% above
• Gasoline inventories: down 1.2 million barrels
• Gasoline stocks versus five-year average: about 6% below
• Distillate inventories: up 0.8 million barrels
• Distillate stocks versus five-year average: about 14% below

The EIA weekly report confirms the draw, which adds another layer of support to a market already focused heavily on Middle East supply.

The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve also remains much smaller than it was historically. EIA data showed the reserve at 286.604 million barrels for the week ending August 28, down from 307.650 million barrels on July 24.

That matters because emergency reserves have already been used to soften the effect of the conflict on consumers and refiners. Oil prices are not climbing in a straight line, however.

Several forces are limiting the rally. Iraq has been increasing exports, providing the market with additional barrels. Reuters reported that Iraqi exports rose to about 2.34 million barrels a day in August from roughly 1.35 million barrels a day in July. Global demand has also weakened after months of high energy costs and supply problems.

EIA has estimated that world oil consumption could fall by an average of around 1.2 million barrels a day in 2026. Lower demand, particularly in parts of Asia affected by expensive and less reliable Middle East supplies, has helped prevent the Hormuz disruption from pushing crude prices even higher.

This explains the unusual oil market investors face now: physical supply routes remain under severe stress, yet weaker demand and alternative exports are preventing an uncontrolled price spike.

The futures curve also shows that traders expect today’s extreme supply pressure to ease over time. Early Thursday ICE Brent futures were roughly:

• November 2026: $94.36
• December 2026: $90.84
• January 2027: $87.80
• February 2027: $85.32
• March 2027: $83.37
• June 2027: $79.63
• December 2027: $76.15

Later contracts trading well below the nearest Brent contract create a steep backwardated market. In simple terms, oil available soon is worth much more than oil for delivery farther into the future.

That structure reflects the immediate cost of war, shipping danger and limited Middle East supply rather than an assumption that $95 oil will necessarily last indefinitely. The energy shock is also moving markets beyond crude.

European natural gas recently climbed above €75 per megawatt-hour, its highest level since early 2023, as investors worried about both Middle East supplies and winter storage. Asian spot LNG prices have also risen sharply as Gulf exporters find new ways to move cargoes around disrupted shipping routes.

Three LNG cargoes from Qatar and the UAE have even been transferred ship-to-ship outside Hormuz, an unusual step designed to keep gas moving to buyers including India and Japan. Higher energy prices are feeding directly into the wider inflation and interest-rate debate.

Investors are already watching whether expensive oil and gas could make inflation harder for the Federal Reserve to control. That has become important for stocks as well, particularly rate-sensitive technology companies.

Readers following stocks today are therefore watching crude alongside Nvidia, Tesla and other major market names. Oil was also a major factor in Wednesday’s stocks after Brent and WTI moved sharply higher.

For consumers, the biggest question is whether today’s $90-plus crude prices eventually feed into gasoline, diesel, airfares, shipping and other costs.

That depends heavily on how long the supply disruption lasts. A short easing in fighting could quickly remove part of the geopolitical premium. Another major tanker attack, deeper restrictions on Hormuz traffic or damage to oil infrastructure could push the market in the opposite direction. For investors, the most important oil signals to watch now are:

• Daily Brent and WTI prices
• Strait of Hormuz vessel traffic
• New tanker attacks or shipping restrictions
• U.S.-Iran military developments
• Saudi, Iraqi and UAE export levels
• Weekly U.S. crude inventories
• Strategic Petroleum Reserve levels
• Asian oil and LNG demand
• Inflation expectations
• Federal Reserve rate expectations

Oil’s effect on equities has been building for several sessions. The connection was already visible in Monday’s market as investors began pricing another rise in geopolitical risk.

The most important takeaway for September 3 is simple: oil prices have eased from Wednesday’s highs, but the supply problem that pushed them higher has not disappeared. Brent remaining around the mid-$90s while Hormuz traffic stays far below normal shows how much risk the market still sees in Middle East energy supplies.

Until shipping through the strait becomes safer and more predictable, oil prices are likely to remain highly sensitive to every military strike, tanker incident and change in export flows. For markets, consumers and central banks, the Strait of Hormuz remains the number one energy risk to watch.