Headlines

Recent U.S. intelligence reports warn that Iran is unlikely to open the Strait of Hormuz any time soon because its grip on the world’s most vital oil artery provides the only real leverage it has over the United States, according to three sources familiar with the matter. The finding suggests that Tehran could continue to throttle the strait to keep energy prices high as a means of pressuring U.S. President Donald Trump to find a quick off-ramp to the nearly five-week-long war that remains [Read more]

Iran's air defence system targeted an "enemy" A-10 aircraft in southern waters near the Hormuz Strait, the nation's state media said on Friday. The New York Times reported earlier in the day that a second U.S. Air Force combat plane had crashed in the Gulf region on Friday and its only pilot was then rescued. (Reporting by Hatem Maher and Ahmed Tolba; Editing by Mark Porter) [Read more]

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]