The oil industry has shown remarkable resilience in the face of the largest energy supply shock in modern history, pulling multiple levers to cushion the blow of the Iran war. But barring a breakthrough in peace talks, the global market may be only months away from a breaking point. The world’s biggest and most liquid commodity market has entered a phase of unprecedented uncertainty since the outbreak of the Iran war and the near-hermetic closure of the Strait of Hormuz – previously the conduit [Read more]

Oil prices edged up on Thursday, paring some previous losses as investors monitored peace talks between the U.S. and Iran, while supply tightness and U.S. inventory drawdowns provided some support. Brent crude futures rose 78 cents, or 0.74%, to $105.80 a barrel by 0341 GMT, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures were up 84 cents, or 0.85%, at $99.10. Both benchmarks dropped more than 5.6% on Wednesday to an over one-week low after U.S. President Donald Trump said negotiations with Iran [Read more]

A Trump administration sale of oil and gas drilling rights on federal lands in New Mexico and Texas generated $4 billion in winning bids, the Interior Department said on Wednesday. The sale's total obliterated that of previous onshore government oil and gas auctions at a time when the Iran war has cut global supplies and raised demand for U.S. crude oil. The previous record total for a Bureau of Land Management oil and gas lease sale was $972 million in 2018, according to trade group Western [Read more]

The United States withdrew 17.8 million barrels of crude oil from its inventories, the highest on record, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday, as the Iran war has cut global supplies and raised demand for U.S. crude and products. The country's stock of oil fell to 819.2 million barrels as of May 15, the lowest in 11 months, data showed. Commercial stocks drew down by about 7.86 million barrels, while the country's strategic stockpile eased by a record 9.9 million [Read more]

A new crude oil pipeline that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz and which the United Arab Emirates began building last year is now 50% complete, the CEO of state oil giant ADNOC, Sultan Al Jaber, said on Wednesday. Iran has largely kept the waterway critical for global oil and gas supplies shut to all ships apart from its own since the U.S.-Israeli strikes in February, sending energy prices and inflation surging, fanning fears of an economic downturn. The Abu Dhabi Media Office publicly revealed [Read more]

U.S. crude and gasoline stockpiles fell last week as demand remained elevated, while distillate inventories were up, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. Crude inventories fell by 7.9 million barrels to 445 million barrels in the week ended May 15, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 2.9 million-barrel draw. Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub fell by 1.6 million barrels in the week, the EIA said, while crude oil [Read more]

U.S. President Donald Trump is discovering – yet again – just how unforgiving and powerful bond markets can be. A global selloff has swept through sovereign debt markets, as rising inflation has driven yields on long-dated bonds to their highest levels in decades. The 30-year U.S. Treasury yield on Wednesday hit 5.20%, the highest since 2007, and BNP Paribas analysts forecast a "de-anchored rise" toward 5.50% and perhaps even beyond. This debt rout has been accompanied by a dramatic [Read more]

The tanker crew gathered their courage and carefully navigated along a route designated by Iran, hugging the coastline and maneuvering their hulking vessel between island checkpoints through the Strait of Hormuz. The 330-metre-long Agios Fanourios I, laden with Iraqi crude oil and bound for Vietnam, had been bottled up off the coast of Dubai since late April. But on May 10 it set off for the strait after a direct deal with Iran overseen by Iraq’s prime minister. Iran’s orders to the tanker [Read more]