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Peace in the Gulf may ease pump prices, but not the Federal Reserve's bigger problem: a U.S. economy that may already have been overheating before the Iran war. If oil retreats to pre-war levels, it could even spur demand at a critical juncture and worsen cost-of-living fears. That sounds like a "damned if it does, damned if it doesn't" predicament. Yet the Fed's dilemma on inflation and interest rates might not be resolved as easily by normalizing fuel prices as either it or President Donald [Read more]

Iraq's oil ministry said on Thursday that reports suggesting Baghdad was considering ending its membership in OPEC did not reflect the Iraqi government's official position. The ministry added that Iraq continued to stress the importance of reviewing oil production quotas to ensure they are aligned with member states' sustainable production capacities. (Reporting by Jana Choukeir; Editing by Alexandra Hudson) [Read more]

Iraq has considered leaving OPEC if the oil producer group does not allow Baghdad to significantly increase oil production, sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The prospect of Iraq leaving would be a serious blow to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which saw the United Arab Emirates walk away less than two months ago. Iraq is the group's second-largest producer after Saudi Arabia and one of its five founding members. OPEC was formed in the Iraqi capital [Read more]

Oil prices fell to pre-war levels on Thursday as the United States said flows through the Strait of Hormuz were nearing normal and its top diplomat completed a Gulf tour aimed at shoring up support for a preliminary Iran deal. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Wednesday shipments through the strait were approaching levels seen before the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28, with at least 20 million barrels exiting the strait in the previous 24 hours. During the [Read more]

Plunger lift optimization isn't just about cycle times and arrival windows. At its core, it comes down to one fundamental decision: are you running the right plunger for your well? It sounds simple, but in practice, it's one of the most commonly overlooked sources of production loss and unnecessary cost in plunger lift operations. The wrong plunger affects everything downstream — off-time requirements, fluid fallback, cycle reliability, and ultimately how many MCF or barrels you're leaving [Read more]

UBS on Thursday cut its Brent crude forecasts to $85 a barrel for end-September and end-December, from $105 and $95 respectively, and said a recovery in oil production from the Iran war was likely to be slower than the market expects. An interim deal last week to end the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, which began on February 28, has allowed traffic through the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping route to resume. * U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told a forum that flows through the strait were [Read more]

Some 57 ships carrying an estimated 1,100 seafarers have transited the Strait of Hormuz since June 23 under a United Nations evacuation plan launched this week, data from the U.N.'s shipping agency showed on Thursday. These are the first numbers to be released by the U.N.'s International Maritime Organization for the initiative, which will enable hundreds of ships with some 11,000 seafarers to leave the strait. According to current IMO data, 12 ships sailed through during the morning of [Read more]