The price of Brent crude topped $111 on Tuesday as talks between the U.S. and Iran continue at a standstill.
The international benchmark rose up to 4% on Tuesday before pairing some gains. The West Texas Intermediate also climbed more than 3%, topping $100 per barrel.
Prices continue to climb this week, particularly as the Trump administration appeared to convey the Trump administration's rejection of Iran's proposal to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz without a nuclear deal.
Speaking with Fox News, Rubio said that the "nuclear question is the reason why we're in this in the first place."
He went on to say that any agreement would need to be one that "definitively prevents them from sprinting toward a nuclear weapon at any point."
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also appeared to back the approach, telling press that President Donald Trump's "red lines with respect to Iran have been made very, very clear, not just to the American public, but also to them as well."
Negotiations continued to be deadlocked during the weekend. Trump cancelled a trip from special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Pakistan on Saturday after Araghchi left the country without meeting them.
Araghchi then returned to Pakistan for further talks, where he discussed the proposal to leave nuclear talks outside the equation. He then went to Russia, where Putin said he saw "how courageously and heroically the people of Iran are fighting for their independence" and told Araghchi that Moscow would "do everything that serves your interests and the interests of all the peoples of the region."
In this context, an intelligence firm said Iran has less than a month of oil storage as the U.S. continues to block its ports during the war.
Concretely, Kpler said the country has between 12 and 22 days worth of storage left. It went on to detail that the country is losing between $200 and $250 million for every day the blockade continues.
The report also noted that it usually takes about two months for the country's oil to reach its main buyer, China, with buyers having a similar period to make payments. That means the economic pain of the blockade might not be felt for a few more weeks.
