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The discount for U.S. crude futures versus Brent on Wednesday hit the widest in 11 years, as attacks on Middle Eastern oil infrastructure drove the global benchmark higher while rising supply in the U.S. set the stage for a jump in oil exports. The U.S-Israeli war on Iran has thrown global oil markets into turmoil, driving crude and fuel prices to multi-year highs as a key trade route has mostly closed and some energy output in the Middle East is shut. The surge in Brent relative to U.S. [Read more]

The Trump administration is expected to announce soon that it will temporarily lift federal smog-cutting restrictions on summer-blend gasoline to curb rising energy prices stemming from the Iran conflict, according to three sources familiar with the matter. The move would make standard gasoline cheaper by not forcing refiners and retailers to switch to more costly summer blends of gasoline, while also allowing fuel retailers to continue selling gasoline blended with 15% ethanol, known as E15, [Read more]

U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Energy Secretary Chris Wright will meet on Thursday with the American Petroleum Institute, the nation’s largest oil trade group, as the Trump administration looks to ease rising gas prices. In the third week of the Iran war, Vance told reporters in Michigan on Wednesday the administration will announce a "couple of things" in the next 24 to 48 hours to address gas prices, now up 92 cents on average nationwide compared to last month, according to travel analyst [Read more]

Conflict in the Middle East is disrupting a significant share of global energy supplies and has triggered the most severe energy crisis in the past 40 years, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Wednesday. "In the context of the current Middle East conflict, this affects at least 20 million barrels per day. This is the volume of oil and petroleum products that used to pass through the Strait of Hormuz every day, as recently as 19 days ago," he said. (Reporting by Olesya Astakhova; [Read more]

Saudi Arabia's crude exports in January rose to 6.993 million barrels per day from 6.988 million bpd in December while crude output hit its highest since April 2023, data from the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI) showed on Wednesday. The world's largest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia currently faces trouble exporting as war in Iran reduces tanker traffic out of the Gulf to a trickle. Saudi production in January stood at about 10.100 million bpd, the JODI data showed, up from 10.084 [Read more]

U.S. crude stocks rose last week, with flows from Venezuela and Mexico hitting their highest levels since 2024, while gasoline and distillate inventories fell, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. Crude inventories rose by 6.2 million barrels to 449.3 million barrels in the week ended March 13, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 383,000-barrel rise. Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub rose by 944,000 barrels in the [Read more]