Headlines

Oil prices fell more than 1% on Wednesday, extending this week's losses and trading near four-month lows, on signs that more oil tankers stranded in the Gulf are set to move out of the Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude futures fell 78 cents, or 1.0%, at $76.30 a barrel as of 0350 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate slipped 78 cents, or 1.1%, to $72.43 a barrel. Both benchmarks settled down around 1% on Tuesday, touching their lowest levels since early March. "Positive signals from the Persian [Read more]

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he has instructed the Department of Justice to look into oil companies for not lowering gasoline pump prices in line with falling crude costs, and accused the companies of "gouging" customers. Trump did not name any companies in his social media post, which came after midnight. The White House and the Justice Department (DOJ) did not respond to a request for further comment outside regular business hours. Diplomacy between the U.S. and [Read more]

An evacuation plan to enable hundreds of ships with some 11,000 seafarers stranded in the Gulf to sail through the Strait of Hormuz is underway after Iran and the U.S. reached a ceasefire deal, the United Nations' shipping agency said on Tuesday. "We have now started contacting the ships to start the evacuation," a spokesperson with the U.N.'s International Maritime Organization (IMO) said, without providing a timeframe. The IMO said it had secured the necessary safety guarantees and [Read more]

U.S. refiner Phillips 66 CEO Mark Lashier said on Tuesday it would take time for crude supplies to clear through the Strait of Hormuz, as uncertainty remains around a return to normal shipping activity. Passage through the Strait of Hormuz is continuing on a limited basis, easing immediate supply concerns and pushing crude prices lower. Meanwhile, energy companies are monitoring how quickly crude flows, and inventories and shipping activity return to normal. Speaking at a JPMorgan [Read more]

Oil tanker operators are reaping record profits after nearly doubling the hire cost of vessels going through the Strait of Hormuz and wider Gulf region this week on rising demand as traffic through the waterway slowly picks up, according to shipping data and sources. Traffic through the vital strait has been modest since Iran lifted its effective blockade last week after agreeing to a 60-day ceasefire with the U.S., as talks on a permanent deal to end their war continue. The number of ships [Read more]

The U.S. has started waiving some sanctions on Iran under their interim deal to end the war, but fully unravelling a tangled web of restrictions on the country's activities and trade under any more comprehensive agreement will be much harder. This is why any effort to lift sanctions on Iran could take years and why foreign investment might take a long time to return: WILL SANCTIONS ON IRAN BE LIFTED? Sanctions, trade embargoes and asset freezes have been imposed by the U.S., the United [Read more]