Oil prices could hit $150 if Israel-Hamas conflict intensifies

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Crude prices could rise to more than $150 a barrel if the conflict in the Middle East escalates, the World Bank warned on Monday, risking a repeat of the 1970s oil price shock if key producers cut supplies. In its quarterly Commodities Markets Outlook, the multilateral lender said a prolonged Israel-Hamas conflict could drive big rises in energy and food prices in a “dual shock” for commodity markets still reeling from Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. “The latest conflict in the Middle East comes on the heels of the biggest shock to commodity markets since the 1970s — Russia’s war with Ukraine,” said Indermit Gill, the World Bank’s chief economist and senior vice-president for development economics. Under the bank’s baseline forecasts, overall commodity prices are predicted to fall 4.1 per cent in the next year, with oil prices declining to an average of $81 a barrel, down from a projected $90 a barrel in the current quarter, as economic growth slows.