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An unnamed source told Iran's semi-official Fars news agency on Friday that Tehran had rejected a U.S. proposal for a 48-hour ceasefire. The source said the proposal was made on Wednesday through another country, which was not named. There was no immediate comment or confirmation from the U.S. (Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Mark Porter) [Read more]

President Donald Trump on Friday said the U.S. can open the Strait of Hormuz with a little more time, as pressure mounts for his administration to find a quick resolution to a war against Iran. "With a little more time, we can easily OPEN THE HORMUZ STRAIT, TAKE THE OIL,& MAKE A FORTUNE," Trump said in a post on Truth Social. Nearly five weeks after it started ⁠with a joint U.S.-Israeli aerial assault, the war in Iran continues to spread chaos across the region and roil financial [Read more]

The EU is assessing "all possibilities" including fuel rationing and releasing more oil from emergency reserves as it braces for a "long-lasting" energy shock from the Middle East war, the Financial Times reported on Friday in an interview with EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen. "This will be a long crisis... energy prices will be higher for a very long time," Dan Jorgensen told the FT, saying that for some more "critical" products "we expect it to be even worse in the weeks to [Read more]

Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee on Thursday said it's "unfortunate timing" that the economy is undergoing an oil shock that is pushing up price before the inflation from last year's tariff shocks has subsided, and that has him concerned. "When the price of gasoline goes up a lot in a short period of time, people's expectations, consumers expectations of where inflation is going to be over the next 12 months start going up pretty significantly, and that will potentially put us [Read more]

The discount on Western Canada Select crude oil to North American benchmark West Texas Intermediate futures widened on Thursday. WCS for May delivery in Hardisty, Alberta, settled at $14.60 a barrel below the U.S. benchmark WTI, according to brokerage CalRock, compared with $13 on Wednesday. * The war in Iran has disrupted global supply of medium and heavy sour barrels, contributing to tighter spreads for heavy crude last month as well as higher outright pricing. * But global crude markets [Read more]

Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said on Thursday that the Strait of Hormuz was open for Russia. "It is open for us," said Ushakov, speaking on Russian state TV channel, the Interfax news agency reported. (Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Alex Richardson) [Read more]

U.S. energy firms this week added to the number of oil and natural gas rigs operating for the first time in three weeks, energy services firm Baker Hughes said on Thursday. The oil and gas rig count, an early indicator of future output, rose by five to 548 in the week to April 2. Despite this week's rig increase, Baker Hughes said the total count was still down 42 rigs, or 7.1% below this time last year. Baker Hughes said oil rigs rose by two to 411 this week, while gas rigs rose by [Read more]

Front-month U.S. crude oil futures were trading at their largest-ever premium over the second-month contract on Thursday as traders scrambled for barrels after U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to continue attacking Iran. Widening backwardation, the market term for immediate deliveries trading at a premium over barrels scheduled for delivery in a later month, suggests investors perceive supplies will be short in the near-term. WTI crude futures for May delivery were trading around $15.70 [Read more]

Bahrain's Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani told the United Nations Security Council on Thursday he hopes for a council vote on Friday on a resolution Bahrain has drafted to protect commercial shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz. Oil prices have surged since the U.S. and Israel struck Iran at the end of February, kicking off a conflict that has now exceeded a month and effectively closed the strait to shipping traffic. Bahrain has presented Security Council members [Read more]