Reports that the White House has asked the Pentagon to draw up options for attacking Iran, possibly to be carried out before the midterm elections, together with a storm that shut in some U.S. crude production, pushed oil prices slightly higher.

On Wednesday, WTI crude futures moved toward $89 a barrel, while Brent settled near $100 a barrel.

Media reports citing two administration officials said the White House is pushing such plans, a message that runs counter to the market's prior broad expectation that U.S. President Donald Trump would hold off on escalating conflict with Iran before next month's midterm elections.

At the same time, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, producers in the Gulf of Mexico have shut in more than 510,000 barrels per day of crude capacity because of Tropical Storm Isaias, equivalent to roughly a quarter of the region's output.

Crude prices have risen sharply this year, as U.S.-Iran tensions disrupted crude exports, drawing down global energy inventories and accelerating inflation.

Although crude flows in the Middle East have increased in recent weeks, attacks on vessels have also risen sharply, including an attack on a tanker near Qatar that reportedly caused casualties.

Geopolitical tensions have also intensified of late.

In the Middle East, beyond the U.S.-Iran conflict, exchanges of fire between Yemen's government forces and the Houthis have escalated further, and the Saudi-led multinational coalition has stepped up strikes on the Houthis, with the conflict showing an expanding front and rising intensity.

On October 5 local time, the Houthis in Yemen posted two videos on social media platforms, said to show the group's first combat use of a new homemade attack drone called "Shawaz," as well as the launch of homemade ballistic missiles toward the adjacent Bab el-Mandeb Strait area.

The Houthis said the missiles "delivered a devastating blow" to enemy assembly points.

According to reports, the Houthis said on October 6 that they had carried out dozens of attacks that day on "Saudi-backed armed personnel assembly points" in Yemen's southern Lahij province, causing more than 200 casualties on the other side, a scale they described as "unprecedented" in recent fighting.

On the night of October 6, explosions were heard again in Yemen's capital Sanaa, and the Houthis said Saudi Arabia launched airstrikes on multiple locations in Yemen.

Analysts believe that none of the parties to the conflict can completely eliminate the other through military means.

Contention over strategic locations may recur, and the conflict could fall into a tug-of-war.

In addition, Russia reportedly launched large-scale strikes on Ukraine.

On October 7 local time, Russia's Ministry of Defense reported that early that morning Russian forces used high-precision land-, sea- and air-based weapons and drones to carry out large-scale strikes on Ukrainian targets.

In Kyiv city, Kyiv region, Chernihiv region, Kirovohrad region, Dnipropetrovsk region, Poltava region and Kharkiv region, strikes hit defense enterprises producing and storing "Flamingo" cruise missiles and medium- and long-range drones for "Fire Point" company.

In Odesa region, strikes hit port and ship repair infrastructure and vessels used by Ukrainian forces.