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U.S. Gulf Coast refiners are reaping the strongest margins in years as disruptions to Middle Eastern oil flows from the Iran war raise demand for U.S. fuel exports, analysts and experts said. Asian and European refiners have been hit hard by a slump in Middle Eastern crude exports due to Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, forcing some to cut production. On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he had agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Iran, conditional on reopening the Strait of [Read more]

Iran will move the management of the strategic Strait of Hormuz into a new phase, its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said on Thursday in a statement read out on state TV. "Iran is not seeking war but will not forfeit its rights and considers all resistance fronts as a unified entity," Khamenei added. (Reporting by Enas Alasharay and Yomna Ehab, Editing by William Maclean) [Read more]

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned ships to keep to a route passing through its territorial waters when crossing the Gulf’s Strait of Hormuz as traffic on Thursday remained well below 10% of normal volumes. Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, one of Japan’s big three shipping firms, is among those caught up in the confusion as firms try to work out what impact the U.S.-Irantwo-week ceasefire is having. "It must be confirmed that the safety risks are sufficiently low," President and [Read more]

The huge relief rally across global markets and oil price plunge sparked by the ceasefire in the Iran war are no surprise. What follows, once the initial euphoria dissipates, is far less certain - and far less rosy than investors seem to believe. And the euphoria should dissipate pretty quickly. Leaving aside the very real possibility that the two-week ceasefire doesn't hold and oil snaps back above $100 a barrel, the economic damage wrought by the last six weeks will linger for a long [Read more]

Imposing a toll on ships sailing through the critical Strait of Hormuz would "set a dangerous precedent" and countries should not impede freedom of navigation, the UN's shipping agency said on Thursday. Iranian officials have raised the idea of charging a toll for using the Strait after a two-week ceasefire between the United States and Tehran was agreed this week. "There is no international agreement where tolls can be introduced for transiting international straits. Any such toll will [Read more]

Iran will allow no more than 15 vessels a day to pass through the Strait of Hormuz under the ceasefire agreement it agreed with the United States, Russia's state TASS news agency quoted an unnamed senior Iranian source as saying on Thursday. The Strait, a strip of water only 34 km (21 miles) wide between Iran and Oman, provides passage from the Gulf to the Indian Ocean and is the main route for about a fifth of world oil supplies and other vital goods including fertilisers. It has been [Read more]

European and African crude oil prices climbed to fresh records on Wednesday, defying a sharp selloff in oil futures after a U.S.-Iran ceasefire was reached on Tuesday, as traders priced in a prolonged disruption to physical oil supplies. The ceasefire announcement sent major benchmark Brent and WTI contracts tumbling 13% and 16% respectively on Wednesday to below $100 a barrel, as investors bet on the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and a reduced geopolitical risk premium.. However, [Read more]

The U.S. and Iran are set to hold peace talks in Pakistan, which has been mediating, but remain deeply divided on key issues, even though President Donald Trump has said proposals presented by Tehran were a "basis" for talks. Each side is sticking to competing demands for a deal to end the war that could shape the Middle East for generations. WHERE DO BOTH SIDES STAND? An Iranian delegation is due to arrive in Islamabad for talks based on a 10-point proposal, which shows little overlap [Read more]