Meanwhile, Gulf attacks increase as U.S. midterm elections draw closer: File Image/Pixabay

More aggression from Iran-backed Houthis as well as the Islamic republic itself caused oil prices on Wednesday to edge up, although for one country the gains were proving to be a windfall for governments.

Houthis attacked an administrative building belonging to state-owned Saudi Aramco in the city of Dhahran, causing a limited fire; this came on the heels of the group striking Riyadh’s international airport four times, with one hit on Saturday killing 13 people.

Meanwhile, Tehran bragged that it was deploying new tactics to target ships in the Strait of Hormuz and keep oil prices high, presumably through the American midterm elections that are widely expected to cause U.S. president Donald Trump to lose control of the House and possibly the Senate – and mitigate his prosecution of the U.S./Iran war.

Iranian officials refused to disclose any details about their alleged tactical switch, but the secretary of Iran’s supreme national security council, Mohsen Rezaei, said the IRGC was striking vessels nightly and would keep doing so (again, presumably at least until the midterms were over).

ZeroHedge noted that “Overall, for October, we've seen at least 24 foreign vessels targeted and hit by Iranian forces; if this keeps up, oil prices are likely to be soaring by month's end.”

All of this caused Brent on Wednesday to settle up 37 cents at $106.06 per barrel, and West Texas Intermediate to settle up 95 cents to $95.09.

Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group Inc., said, "We're seeing a lot of fear trade today."

But as far as TD Economics was concerned, higher crude prices have provided a boost  to Canada’s economy: in a new report, the bank noted that over the past six months, Canadian energy exports have risen by an average of $4.5 billion monthly, filling provincial and federal government coffers.

TD economist and report author Marc Ercolao wrote, “In a high price environment, Canada’s crude production has provided an important income and revenue buffer, but it does not make the country immune to tighter fuel markets.”

Meanwhile, cautious analysts on Wednesday tried to downplay data that, despite Iran’s sabre-rattling, showed Gulf oil transits surging in September to more than 81 percent of prewar levels, and Iranian exports falling to zero due to the U.S. blockade.

Ole Hansen, analyst at Saxo Bank, stated in a note, "More crude reaching international markets does not necessarily mean more oil is being produced…Some of the recovery reflects a redistribution of available barrels, including volumes that would otherwise have supplied regional refineries.”

Also on Wednesday, the American Petroleum Institute estimated that U.S. crude inventories  fell by 11.12 million barrels in the week ending October 9, following a 2 million barrel drop the week prior; commercial crude inventories (excluding the SPR) have shed more than 51 million barrels in the last 25 weeks, but U.S. crude inventories are roughly at the same level they were at the beginning of 2026.