{"id":30863,"date":"2026-03-17T05:58:52","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T05:58:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/uncategorized\/30863\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T05:58:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T05:58:52","slug":"amid-escalating-middle-east-turmoil-wti-crude-trades-near-94-20-in-early-asian-hours-as-iran-conflict-persists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/live-updates\/30863\/","title":{"rendered":"Amid escalating Middle East turmoil, WTI crude trades near $94.20 in early Asian hours, as Iran conflict persists"},"content":{"rendered":"WTI, the US crude oil benchmark, traded around $94.20 in early Asian hours on Tuesday, moving above $94.00. Traders are waiting for the American Petroleum Institute (API) report due later on Tuesday.\n\nIsrael\u2019s military said it detected missiles launched from Iran towards Israeli territory and told people in affected areas to go to shelters. The United Arab Emirates temporarily closed its airspace as a precaution, and its defence ministry said it was responding to missile and drone threats from Iran.\n\n

Oil Market Disruption Risks<\/h3>\nAttacks linked to Iran on ships, infrastructure, and ports used by oil tankers have raised concerns about wider disruption to oil transit routes. These developments have supported higher oil prices.\n\nThe International Energy Agency (IEA) said it will release a record 400 million barrels of oil. It also said coordinated emergency releases can add temporary supply and limit sharp rises in oil prices.\n\nWe are seeing a tense setup in the oil market, driven by the events we saw unfold last year. In 2025, WTI crude spiked above $94 a barrel as direct conflict between Iran and Israel threatened to disrupt critical shipping lanes. This creates a strong bias for higher prices based on fear of a wider supply disruption.\n\nThis type of geopolitical stress makes options premiums very expensive due to high implied volatility. We saw a similar situation during the 2022 Ukraine conflict, when the CBOE Crude Oil Volatility Index (OVX) jumped over 50% in a matter of weeks. Traders should expect sharp swings and be prepared for volatility to be the main driver of prices, not just fundamentals.\n\n

Strategy Considerations For Traders<\/h3>\nFor those anticipating higher prices, it’s important to remember that strategic reserve releases are not a permanent solution. The record-setting IEA release in 2022 helped cool prices from their peak near $130, but it did not fundamentally alter the upward trend until demand fears took over later that year. A bull call spread could be a calculated way to play further upside while limiting the cost of high premiums.\n\nOn the other hand, the mention of a 400-million-barrel release from the IEA is a powerful cap on any potential price rally. This is more than double the amount the US released over six months in 2022, representing a significant addition to global supply. With current global demand growth forecasts from the EIA sitting at a modest 1.1 million barrels per day for 2026, this new supply could easily overwhelm the market if the conflict does not escalate further.\n\nGiven these strong forces pulling in opposite directions, non-directional strategies are worth considering. Buying options straddles or strangles allows a trader to profit from a large price move, regardless of whether it breaks higher on war news or lower on an IEA announcement. The primary bet here is on continued instability rather than picking a specific direction.\n\nCreate your live VT Markets account<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0start trading<\/a>\u00a0now. <\/b>\n

\r\n\r\n

Start trading now – Click here<\/a> to create your real VT Markets account <\/strong> <\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WTI rises above $94 as Iran-Israel tensions lift crude; traders await API data, IEA plans release.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-updates"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"josephine","author_link":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/author\/josephine\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30863\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}