Oil prices continued on an upward trend at the start of September with the US and Iran trading military strikes. Brent crude hit $97 as the dust settled. With further skirmishes around the Red Sea waterways and the Bab al-Mandab Strait, Brent Crude shot above the $110 mark.
The upward push comes against a background of deteriorating stocks and diesel refinery capacity constrictions. Upshot is more pressure on general prices.
In the longer view the opinion is that there is no appetite for continued military confrontation on either side in the Middle East - but as the old wisdom says it's easier to start a war than end it.
Also with some movement in the eastern front with some nascent talks germinating in the Ukraine Russia conflict could 2027 be a year of resolutions?
However the global environment has got hotter, and not in the climate sense.
