Vincent Wu
Research Associate, Flux
Brent Rallies Towards $99/bbl
Brent rallies to $99 on escalating Middle East hostilities; Russia's Ilsky refinery hit by Ukrainian drone attack
Published: June 3, 2026
Written by:
Vincent Wu
4 page report
Brent crude futures traded higher on Wednesday morning, building on the strength from Tuesday’s close. Aug’26 rallied up to $99/bbl by 11am BST before seeing resistance and falling to the $98/bbl level.
Prices have been grinding higher over the day on escalating hostilities in the Middle East, with Iran firing missiles at Kuwait and Bahrain, with diplomatic talks between Iran and the US showing little progress. Notably, Kuwait suspended flights at its international airport, after an Iranian drone attack caused heavy damage to one of its passenger terminals. A fire at Russia's 138kb/d Ilsky oil refinery in its southern Krasnodar region has been put out after an overnight Ukrainian drone attack, local authorities said on Tuesday. Iraq is poised to more than triple crude exports through a pipeline in Kurdistan, where its cabinet approved a plan to ramp up exports from 220 to 770kb/d within 2.5 months. Norway's oil and gas output could initially fall by about 45.5kb of oil equivalent per day from Friday if workers go on strike, equivalent to just over 1% of the country's output, industry group Offshore Norway said on Wednesday. Finally, the Aug/Sep’26 and Aug/Feb’27 Brent futures spreads are at $2.72/bbl and $12.80/bbl respectively.
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