2026-06-23T05:19:16+00:00
Shafaq News
Oil prices inched down on Tuesday, extending losses from the
previous session, as investors looked for clearer signs of progress in
restoring crude flows through the Strait of Hormuz following U.S.-Iran peace
talks.
Brent crude futures fell 20 cents, or 0.3%, to $77.70 a
barrel and U.S. West Texas Intermediate declined to $73.74 a barrel, down 12
cents, or 0.2%, as of 0323 GMT.
Prices fell more than 3% on Monday after the United States
granted Iran a 60-day sanctions waiver following initial peace talks, and as
officials reported a lull in hostilities in Lebanon under the broader agreement.
“The gradual increase in oil flows through the Strait
of Hormuz continues to weigh on the market,” said ING analysts in a note.
Two crude tankers with just under 2 million barrels of oil
sailed through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, ship-tracking data showed, in a
sign that traffic was picking up following weaker flows on Sunday due to
concerns over passage through the waterway.
“Transits over recent days look to have risen sharply,
(which) the market will treat as a proxy for both physical oil, perhaps paper
oil, and diplomatic progress,” said Sparta Commodities’ head of research
Neil Crosby in a note.
“It feels like we will be stuck in this bearish risk-off/optimistic mood
until such time as something changes.”
The price declines come after a weekend that had appeared to
put the week-old accord in jeopardy, including threats from U.S. President
Donald Trump to restart the war if Iran disrupted shipping through the Strait
of Hormuz after Tehran
declared the strategic waterway closed.
“There remains a prevailing dose of market scepticism,
rooted in deep-seated mistrust between Washington and Tehran, suggesting that
any return to pre-war oil prices is likely to be delayed rather than immediate,” said Tim
Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade.
Separately, analysts in a Reuters poll expect U.S. crude
inventories to have fallen last week, along with distillate and gasoline
inventories.
On Monday, government data
showed U.S. crude stocks in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell to 331.2
million barrels last week, the lowest since June 1983, as supplies tightened in
the wake of the U.S.-Iran conflict.
(REUTERS)
Only the headline is edited by Shafaq News.
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