Oil rises on renewed US-Iran hostilities and threat of Red Sea closure

By Robert Harvey

LONDON, July 17 (Reuters) - Oil prices rose by about 2% on Friday after the U.S. and Iran stepped up attacks across the Gulf, with shipping threatened by a potential Red Sea closure on top of the restricted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

Brent crude futures rose by $1.53, or 1.82%, to $85.76 a barrel by 0951 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures gained $1.69, or 2.14%, to $80.64.

Both benchmarks have climbed nearly 13% this week, with Brent on track for a third consecutive weekly gain and WTI set for its second.

The broken truce between the U.S. and Iran has resulted in a drop in oil flows out of the strait. Iran, meanwhile, has pressed the Houthi movement to close the Red Sea route if the U.S. strikes Iran's power infrastructure.

Transit through the Red Sea has increased significantly since the start of the Iran war because of rerouted Saudi oil exports away from Hormuz, Commerzbank analysts wrote.

"Should a blockade of the Strait of Bab al-Mandab occur in the wake of further escalation, the price of oil in particular is likely to rise further," they wrote.

Iran said it launched fresh strikes on U.S. facilities in the Middle East on Friday, including the first direct attack in Syria, after a sixth straight night of U.S. strikes on Iranian military facilities.

U.S. ​Central ​Command said on Thursday that American forces had begun a new wave of strikes against Iran to further degrade Iranian military capabilities.

"Oil security is still a critical issue," International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol said on Thursday at a Council on Foreign Relations event in Washington.

"We should be worried, and I am worried, if the situation does not improve in the next few weeks," he said.

Meanwhile, Qatar's defence ministry said its armed forces thwarted an Iranian missile attack early on Friday and the interior ministry said a child was injured by shrapnel resulting from interception operations.

One of Kuwait's power generation and water desalination stations was hit by an Iranian attack, Kuwait's electricity ministry said on Friday.

(Reporting by Robert Harvey in London, Mohi Narayan in New Delhi and Helen Clark in PerthEditing by David Goodman)