About 10.7 million barrels of Iranian crude exports crossed through the Strait of Hormuz and exited the area blockaded by the U.S. Navy between April 13 and 21, data analytics firm Vortexa said. * The shipments transited on six crude carriers that had their AIS data switched off. * A U.S. blockade of Iranian ports came into effect on April 13. The blockade, Vortexa said, "is not necessarily implemented close to Iranian ports nor within the Strait of Hormuz, but flexibly around an area [Read more]

Iran seized two ships in the Strait of Hormuz as it tightened its grip on the strategic waterway after U.S. President Donald Trump announced he was indefinitely calling off attacks, with no sign of peace talks restarting. The status of a two-week-old ceasefire, due to have expired earlier this week, remained unclear. In a sharp about-face hours after threatening renewed violence, Trump made what appeared to be a unilateral announcement on Tuesday that the U.S. would extend a ceasefire until [Read more]

The U.S. military has intercepted at least three Iranian-flagged tankers in Asian waters and is redirecting them away from their positions near India, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, shipping and security sources said on Wednesday. Washington has imposed a blockade on Iran's trade by sea while Iran has fired on ships to prevent them sailing through the Strait of Hormuz waterway at the entrance to the Middle East Gulf. Nearly two months after the U.S. and Israel began their war on Iran, there is [Read more]

U.S. oilfield services firm Weatherford International said on Wednesday that oilfield activity in Mexico has normalized and it was starting to get paid after a new financial mechanism helped raise funds for state-run energy company Pemex to pay its suppliers after long delays. Oilfield service companies had significantly reduced activities amid Pemex's accumulation of billions of dollars in pending payments to contractors and providers in recent years. A payment mechanism approved by the [Read more]

A lockout at BP's 440,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Whiting, Indiana, enters its second month as the British oil major and hundreds of union workers remain at odds. BP locked out about 800 workers represented by the United Steelworkers union on March 19, after months of negotiations failed to produce a new labor contract. The Whiting facility is the largest refinery in the Midwest and a major supplier of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. It has continued to operate during the lockout after [Read more]

Safe and sustainable passage through the Strait of Hormuz is what top shipping companies require before the world's sees much oil or cargo leave or enter the Gulf, two top sector executives said on Wednesday. "Two weeks ago when the ceasefire, said to be temporary, came into picture, we thought there was hope. But in reality, the agreement was not translated into the safety and passage (of the vessels)," Jotaro Tamura, chief executive of Japan's Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, told Reuters in an [Read more]

U.S. crude stocks rose while gasoline and distillate inventories fell last week, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. Crude inventories rose by 1.9 million barrels to 465.7 million barrels in the week ended April 17, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.2 million-barrel draw. Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub rose by 806,000 barrels in the week, the EIA said. Refinery crude runs fell by 55,000 barrels per day [Read more]