Oil prices increases more than four percent on Friday

The two crude oil benchmarks, Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude — both increases more than 4 percent per barrel as a percentage.

On Friday, Brent crude was sold at $80.57 per barrel (one barrel = 159 liters) and WTI crude was sold at $75.07 per barrel.

Compared to the previous day on Thursday, the price of Brent crude increased by 3.16 dollars or 4.1 percent and the price of WTI increased by 3.5 dollars or 4.2 percent.

Saul Cavonic, an analyst at MST Marquis, an international energy market monitoring company, told that, the Red Sea-Hormuz Strait is very important in the global trade of fuel oil. If instability starts on this route - then it will have a huge impact on the international market.

The ratio of the impact will be even greater than the extraordinary jump in oil prices in the 1970s and the rate at which natural gas prices rose in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war, said Saul Cavonic.

Therefore, crude oil prices nearly jumped within hours of a massive missile and airstrike by US-British forces targeting Yemen's Houthi rebel group on Thursday night.

The Houthi rebels, who control half of Yemen's territory, began targeting commercial ships linked to Israel in the Red Sea two months ago in protest against Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip. According to the Pentagon, the Houthis have targeted commercial ships in the Red Sea a total of 27 times in the past two months.

Last Thursday, the Houthi rebel group launched 20 drone-missiles targeting US and UK warships. After that, the American and British forces patrolling the Red Sea launched missile and air strikes targeting various military installations of the Houthis in Yemen.

US President Joe Biden has announced that after Thursday's attack, if the Houthis continue to target commercial ships on the Red Sea route, then there will be another operation in Yemen.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that after Thursday's attack, several companies, including international shipping giant Maersk, announced the indefinite suspension of their ships on the Red Sea route.