Oil prices were slightly lower than last week’s close when futures trading began on Sunday, about 24 hours before President Trump issues a 48-hour ultimatum to Iran.
Futures for Brent crude (BZ=F), the international pricing benchmark, initially surged but quickly gave up gains within minutes of the opening bell on Sunday to trade around $106 a barrel. U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude (CL=F) is trading around $97.90 a barrel.
President Trump said in a post on Truth Social at 6:45 PM ET on Saturday that Iran has 48 hours to “fully open the Strait of Hormuz without threat” or “within 48 hours from this point, the United States of America will attack and destroy every one of their power plants, starting with the largest!”
The threat from the U.S. president follows a week of attacks by the Iranian regime on energy infrastructure across the Gulf, including Qatar’s Ras Laffan liquefied natural gas export terminal – the largest such facility in the world.
In a note to clients on Sunday night, Goldman Sachs’ oil arm, led by oil research chief Daan Struyven, raised its oil price target and now expects Brent crude prices to trade at $110 a barrel in March and April, up from its previous forecast of $98 a barrel in the same period, assuming “Hormuz flows remain at 5% of normal levels over the longer six-week period, followed by a gradual recovery over one month.”
The bank currently assumes Brent and WTI prices to average $85 and $79 per barrel in 2026, respectively, up from previous estimates of $77 and $72 per barrel for the two benchmarks. Goldman Sachs predicts that the average price of Brent crude oil and WTI crude oil in 2027 will be US$80 and US$75 per barrel respectively.
“In the short term, markets may require growing risk premiums to generate precautionary demand destruction to hedge against shortages in longer-term disruption risk scenarios,” Goldman’s Struyven, Yulia Grigsby and Alexandra Paulus wrote.
“Recognizing the risk of high concentrations of production and spare capacity could lead to structural strategic inventories and long-term price increases.”
