That Dastardly Brent Crude Is Charging More Than $100 For A Barrel Of Oil Again

The party is over, my friends. Things were chugging along perfectly smoothly, not a problem in the world or a single cloud in the sky, and then all of the sudden, everything got ruined. According to the Associated Press, that dastardly Brent Crude has jacked up his prices again. Now, he wants more than $100 for a barrel of oil. Ridiculous! Who died and made that man the king of oil prices? Not me, that's for sure. If I ever find that Brent Crude guy, it's on sight.

At the time of writing, a barrel of Brent Crude's oil is trading at about $101, up over the $100 mark for the first time since July. While most Americans don't buy oil by the barrel, they do buy the gas said oil gets made into, and these days, that stuff's pretty expensive, too. According to AAA, the average cost of a gallon of gas is currently $4.28 a gallon, with premium fuel averaging $5.17 and diesel at $5.98. We may have seen higher gas prices in the past, but that diesel price is officially an all-time record. 

As we reported a few days ago, those high prices have added up since Trump started this war with Iran. Pricier gas and diesel have collectively cost Americans more than $100,000,000,000 since Republicans decided we needed another forever war. Throw in the cost of the war itself, and suddenly, things are looking pretty pricey. Oh, and all those higher transportation costs are also driving up the cost of goods that aren't fuel, raising fears that we'll see even more inflation in the coming months. 

The good news is, that dastardly Brent Crude isn't gouging us quite as badly as he has in the past. After Russia invaded Ukraine back in 2022, he jacked up his prices to almost $120 a barrel and kept them above $100 for about a month. Whether we'll get back to that $120 price point or not still remains to be seen, but knowing Mr. Crude, I wouldn't be surprised. The man is literally obsessed with money. And oil, for some reason. 

In the past, oil price spikes have been relatively brief, but some experts already believe that may not be the case this time around. Quoting Lukman Otunuga, head of market research at global broker FXTM, the AP wrote:

"This time feels different," Otunuga wrote, pointing to rising tensions. He added that a solid close above $100 "confirms this isn't just a headline spike" and potentially opens the door toward $110 — although there's still the possibility for momentum to fade.

Analysts at Bank of America also said this week that additional refinery outages in Russia, reduced refining activity elsewhere and sharply declining inventories have pushed diesel and gasoline prices sharply higher globally.

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The prospect of reaching a durable deal before the U.S. midterms looks "increasingly unlikely" and "could remain elusive even beyond that," the analysts added. The upcoming elections are now just 8 weeks away.

Increased violence in the region could also push oil prices higher. Yemen's Houthis, for example, have upped their attacks in the Red Sea and recently captured the city of Mocha and now controls the Bab al-Mandeb ⁠strait. Meanwhile, the U.S. and Iran continue shooting at oil tankers, and Trump's admitted the war will continue past the midterms. Wonderful.