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A series of well-timed market bets on falling oil prices totalling as much as $7 billion during March and April spread across multiple exchanges and types of fuel and derivatives just before major Iranian policy announcements by U.S. President Donald Trump, according to traders, market experts and Reuters analysis of exchange data. The size exceeds previously reported bets amounting to $2.6 billion, which have already prompted the U.S. administration to warn staff against using nonpublic [Read more]

Goldman Sachs said that strong crude exports outside the Gulf and subdued demand from China are helping to partially offset market tightening caused by very low Gulf exports. Goldman Sachs said in a note dated Thursday that 45% of the hit to Persian Gulf crude/condensate exports is being offset, primarily by increased exports from the Americas, but there is no net offset to the decline in refined products exports. It highlighted that an increase in exports does not equate to higher [Read more]

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Thursday that Iran appears to have cut back oil production by 400,000 barrels per day and is likely to reduce it more as its storage units fill. "It looks like they've likely already cut back their production, maybe by 400,000 barrels a day. They'll likely continue to ramp down their production as their storage fills and their inability to export oil," Wright said in an interview with Fox News. A U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ​ports has shrunk [Read more]

While prices for crude oil futures have surged and slumped in line with the latest headlines about the war between the United States and Iran, the impact of the crisis in physical markets for refined fuels has been worsening. Another hint of a peace agreement was enough to send Brent contracts down 7.8% on Wednesday to a close of $101.27 a barrel, even though a full and sustained re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz still seems a long way off. In the meantime, the effective closure of the [Read more]

LONDON, May 7 - With the standoff over the frozen Iran war threatening a global economic meltdown, Washington and Tehran have scaled back their efforts to agree a comprehensive peace deal and now seek a limited pact putting off the harder issues. This is what we know about the proposals under discussion and where they leave the big unresolved disputes behind the war: AT WHAT STAGE ARE THE DISCUSSIONS? Sources in both camps have said the latest peace efforts are aimed at a temporary [Read more]

A Chinese-owned oil products tanker was attacked near the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, Chinese media outlet Caixin reported, as President Donald Trump launched a U.S. plan that day to help stranded vessels but suspended it a day later. This was the first time a Chinese oil tanker has been attacked, a person with knowledge of the matter told Caixin on Thursday. Traffic through the vital strait, through which 20% of the ‌world's oil and gas supplies pass, has been at a virtual standstill [Read more]