Oil prices climbed more than $2 a barrel Thursday as Iran declared the critical energy chokepoint, the Strait of Hormuz, closed after the U.S. launched additional strikes against Iran. Brent futures rose $2.30, or 2.47%, to $95.40 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude climbed $2.60, or 2.89%, to $92.63. U.S. crude futures gained more than $3 earlier in the session. Iran's top joint military command announced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, including oil [Read more]

Commodities trader Gunvor on Wednesday told Reuters it has provided financial backing to a team of energy industry executives for efforts to amass natural gas-producing assets across top U.S. shale basins. A Gunvor spokesperson confirmed that the company has backed Western Natural Resources, a private oil and gas producer based in Oklahoma City which has previously developed energy production projects in partnership with asset manager KKR. The financial backing for Western raises Gunvor's [Read more]

The U.S.is seeking to loan energy companies up to 40 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help push fuel prices down, the Department of Energy said on Wednesday. The latest U.S. offer to loan the oil is part of a previous U.S. agreement to release 172 million barrels from the facility. So far the U.S. has loaned about 133 million barrels of the oil in that agreement. The U.S. agreed in March with about 30 fellow member countries of the International Energy Agency [Read more]

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said over 100 million barrels of crude had passed through the Straits of Hormuz as part of what he called a secret U.S. mission to support oil tankers. "More than 200 Commercial Ships have safely traveled through the Strait," he said in a post on Truth Social. (Reporting by Jasper Ward in Washington; Editing by David Ljunggren) [Read more]

The cost of shipping a container of goods from Asia to the United States has doubled since the start of the Iran war, driven by spiking fuel prices and an uptick in demand from importers who are worried costs will only rise further as the conflict wears on. "If you want to know how seriously to take the threat of an energy crisis, look at container shipping rather than oil markets because the risk is priced into the spiraling freight rates far more clearly," said Peter Sand, chief analyst at [Read more]

India is considering Canada as a potential crude oil supplier, High Commissioner Dinesh Patnaik said on Wednesday at the Global Energy Show in Calgary, Alberta, adding that the country's newer refineries are designed to process heavy crude, making Canadian grades a viable option. Patnaik said officials from the two countries are meeting regularly to discuss opportunities for sourcing Canadian energy. He said, however, that global investors remain cautious about Canada's regulatory and [Read more]

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told a congressional hearing on Wednesday that he's not aware that the U.S. has taken millions of barrels of oil out of Iran, after President Donald Trump told reporters it had. Wright said earlier in the hearing, however, that the U.S. military had helped get some oil out of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman. On Tuesday, Wright said oil traffic through the strait has risen "very meaningfully" over the last week. (Reporting [Read more]

U.S. crude stocks fell sharply last week as refiners continued to boost activity to fill supply gaps caused by the Iran war, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. Crude inventories fell by 7.2 million barrels to 426.5 million barrels in the week ended June 5, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 4 million-barrel draw. U.S. crude inventories, including those from strategic reserves, have fallen by 79 million barrels since the Iran war [Read more]