Oil prices edged higher on Wednesday on Middle East supply concerns, with traders wary of Red Sea shipping risks and threats to oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, Reuters reported from Beijing. Brent crude futures rose 85 cents, or 0.78%, to $109.64 per barrel as of 0022 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate crude rose 76 cents, or 0.78%, to $98.58 per barrel. Yaani, prices are being quoted per barrel — one barrel is about 159 litres of crude — so every dollar on the barrel price quickly adds up across the millions of barrels the world burns each day.

The latest shipping incident came on Tuesday, when a supertanker caught fire after striking a sea mine south of the Strait of Hormuz while 'violating' Iranian regulations, Iran's Revolutionary Guards Navy said, according to Iranian media reported by Reuters. There were at least 18 vessel attacks reported over two weeks, ship-tracker Kpler said in a note on Monday. 'Attacks on tankers have expanded beyond the Strait of Hormuz,' LSEG analysts said in a note, adding that Iran has been targeting vessels as far south as the Gulf of Oman, threatening loadings outside the Arab Gulf as well as the ship-to-ship transfers that have helped support Middle East loadings — an analyst assessment, not a verified account of each attack.

On land, Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis on Monday claimed responsibility for attacks on a Saudi Aramco site in Yanbu, the Shaybah oilfield and Saudi Arabia's Riyadh and Abha airports, Reuters reported — claims the Houthis themselves made. Prices had fallen in the previous session after Iran's president discussed mediation efforts in a meeting with Pakistan's army chief in Tehran: on Tuesday Brent settled down 76 cents, or 0.69%, at $108.79, after touching a five-month high of $111.99, and the November WTI contract, which expired on Tuesday, settled down $1.87, or 1.8%, at $101.79. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in a television interview aired on Tuesday that Iran has not received a response from Saudi Arabia or the Houthis to its offer to help broker peace talks. For the lakhs of Punjabi and Indian workers in the Gulf, sustained high oil prices and attacks around Hormuz and the Red Sea matter directly — through fuel prices at home, airline routes and the safety of shipping and energy jobs in the region.

Sources: Reuters, 'Oil rises on Middle East supply worries', 21 October 2026 (0022 GMT pricing); Reuters, 'Gold eases as elevated oil prices keep inflation risks in focus', 20 October 2026; Kpler ship-tracking note and LSEG analyst note, both as reported by Reuters; Iranian media reporting of the Revolutionary Guards Navy statement, as reported by Reuters.