Oil jumps 4pc on US plan to deploy more troops to Mideast

02/10/2026 15:41 AST

Oil prices jumped more than $4 per barrel at settlement on Thursday after a report said the US was sending additional troops and another aircraft carrier to the Middle East, while China suspended oil product exports, fuelling concerns that global fuel shortages could worsen.

The new front-month December Brent crude futures contract settled at $102.31 a barrel, up $4.28, or 4.37%. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures settled at $92.87 a barrel, up $2.45, or 2.71%.

The oil price jump comes following a Wall Street Journal report citing senior US officials that said Marine Corps ships and up to 10,000 additional troops are being deployed to the Middle East region. The forces are expected to arrive by the end of November, the officials said.

The USS Theodore Roosevelt left San Diego on a scheduled deployment Sunday, the Journal reported. The USS George H.W. Bush and USS George Washington are currently on station in the Middle East.

The deployment could signal the US is preparing to escalate its war against Iran.

President Donald Trump has told aides that he expects to start bombing Iran again after the US midterm elections in November, US officials told the Wall Street Journal last week.

"The president I think is going to escalate after the midterms; we keep hearing that the Iranians are going to escalate into the midterms," Scott Modell, CEO of Rapidan Energy and a former CIA officer, told CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" on Monday. "The direction of travel is toward escalation."

Oil prices are rising even as crude flows from the Middle East have largely recovered to prewar levels.

However, the recovery remains fragile, with at least three tankers attacked this week while transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran and its Houthi allies have also attacked regional refineries.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries prompted Moscow to ban diesel exports, while Chinese refiners canceled some gasoline and jet fuel exports planned for October.

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