Tag: Oil

The United States is allowing Iranian oil tankers to transit the Strait of Hormuz, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC in an interview Monday.

Iran will allow Indian-flagged tankers ​to transit the Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for 40% of the South Asian nation’s crude imports, an Indian government source said ‌on Thursday, but an Iranian source outside the country denied any such deal was reached.

Three vessels have been hit by unknown projectiles in the Strait of Hormuz, maritime ​security and risk firms said on Wednesday, bringing the number of ships struck in the region since ‌the Iran conflict began to at least 14.

U.S. President Donald Trump thinks the war against ​Iran “is very complete” and that Washington was “very far ahead” ‌of his initial four to five week estimated time frame, according to a CBS News interview with him

Oil prices surged early Monday, briefly trading near $120 a barrel, as the Iran War threatened to cause a full-blown global energy crisis. However, prices have since fallen back toward $100 in volatile morning trading.

The price of Brent crude just surged past $90 a barrel for the first time in two years as the escalating conflict in Iran continues to fuel a meteoric rally that shows no signs of slowing down.

Oil prices rose to their highest in more than a year as traders continued to fret that supplies will be badly affected by conflict in the Middle East.

Oil prices have soared after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran continued on Sunday night.

Qatar halted production of liquefied natural gas on Monday and Saudi Arabia shut its biggest domestic oil refinery after a drone strike, a source said, as Israeli and U.S. strikes and Iranian retaliation triggered precautionary shutdowns of oil and gas facilities across the Middle East.

Some OPEC+ delegates said they expect the group will agree to resume modest production increases when it meets this weekend to review policy for April.

Russia’s oil producers reduced the pace of drilling in 2025 to the lowest level in three years, dimming the outlook for output growth this year as Western sanctions and a strong ruble undercut revenue.

Oil was little changed at the start of the week, as traders monitored geopolitical risk before talks between the US and Iran resume on Tuesday.

World oil demand will rise more slowly than expected this year, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday, while warning the global market still faces a sizeable surplus despite outages that cut supply in January.

Discounts on Russian oil exports to China widened to new records this week as sellers cut prices to lure demand from the world’s top crude importer and offset the likely loss of India sales, traders said.

Oil prices slid Monday as investors dialed back fears of a supply shock after U.S. President Donald Trump’s statements on Iran signaled a possible easing in tensions between Tehran and Washington.

OPEC+ is expected to keep its pause on oil output increases for March at a meeting on Sunday, three OPEC+ delegates told Reuters, with prices rising due to a drop in Kazakhstan’s oil production.

Oil prices rebounded on Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump renewed threats against Iran, raising concerns of military action that could disrupt crude supplies while there are outages in Kazakhstan.

The global oil market will be in deep surplus in the first quarter of 2026, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday, as so far excess supplies have offset the geopolitical risk of disruption.

The first US sale of Venezuelan crude was to a company whose senior oil trader donated to Donald Trump’s re-election campaign and attended a White House meeting with the president last week.

Oil major Chevron Corp, global trading houses Vitol and Trafigura, and other firms are competing for U.S. government deals to export crude oil from Venezuela, according to sources familiar with the matter.