Oil prices fell to pre-war levels on Thursday as the United States said flows through the Strait of Hormuz were nearing normal and its top diplomat completed a Gulf tour aimed at shoring up support for a preliminary Iran deal. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Wednesday shipments through the strait were approaching levels seen before the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28, with at least 20 million barrels exiting the strait in the previous 24 hours. During the [Read more]

UBS on Thursday cut its Brent crude forecasts to $85 a barrel for end-September and end-December, from $105 and $95 respectively, and said a recovery in oil production from the Iran war was likely to be slower than the market expects. An interim deal last week to end the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, which began on February 28, has allowed traffic through the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping route to resume. * U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told a forum that flows through the strait were [Read more]

Some 57 ships carrying an estimated 1,100 seafarers have transited the Strait of Hormuz since June 23 under a United Nations evacuation plan launched this week, data from the U.N.'s shipping agency showed on Thursday. These are the first numbers to be released by the U.N.'s International Maritime Organization for the initiative, which will enable hundreds of ships with some 11,000 seafarers to leave the strait. According to current IMO data, 12 ships sailed through during the morning of [Read more]

Revived tanker movement through the Strait of Hormuz pushed U.S. crude prices below $70 a barrel briefly on Wednesday even though inventories at the country's crude storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma have dropped to their lowest in 12 years. Stocks of oil at Cushing fell to about 19 million barrels last week, the lowest level since 2014, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported on Wednesday. Still, the price of West Texas Intermediate, or WTI, the benchmark used to price domestic crude, [Read more]

Prices of Brent crude oil for second-month delivery traded higher on Wednesday than prices for prompt delivery for the first time since the Iran war started in late February, signaling increased near-term supply. Brent, the global benchmark, traded 12 cents higher for contracts delivering in September versus those with August delivery, implying the market is pricing in ample prompt supply but fewer barrels in the coming months. "We have the prospect of a big rush in physical supply out of the [Read more]

Venezuelan crude oil exports could rise to 2 million barrels per day by the end of U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, roughly double current levels, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Wednesday at the Reuters Global Energy Forum in New York. (Reporting by Liz Hampton, writing by Richard Valdmanis) [Read more]

J.P. Morgan on Wednesday lowered its second-half 2026 Brent crude oil price forecast due to lower-than-expected OECD commercial inventory draws and lower demand for oil. The bank sees Brent averaging $86 per barrel in the third quarter, $80 in the last quarter, and expects to exit 2026 at $78, according to a research note. * J.P. Morgan said OECD commercial inventories draws have come in below expectations, while demand losses have been larger than expected, implying materially less upward [Read more]

(Adds details from report ) HOUSTON, June 24 (Reuters) - U.S. crude stocks at Cushing fell to a near 12-year low last week, while gasoline and distillate inventories rose, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. Crude inventories fell by 6.1 million barrels to 412.1 million barrels in the week ended June 19, their lowest since January 2025, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 4.5 million-barrel draw. Crude stocks at the Cushing, [Read more]

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio held talks with the United Arab Emirates leader on Wednesday during a Middle East tour, seeking to reassure Gulf allies who view a proposed Iran peace deal as too soft on a regional power that attacked them in the war. The U.S.-Iran accord reached last week — the first signed by an American and an Iranian president since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution — includes a proposed $300 billion fund and the waiver of some sanctions. Arriving in the United Arab [Read more]