APA Corporation’s Beryl Alpha oil platform in the North Sea.
Courtesy: APA Corporation
Oil prices rose Wednesday as investors weighed uncertainty over U.S.-Iran talks with the two countries launching fresh strikes Tuesday, even as President Donald Trump said negotiations with Tehran were ongoing.
West Texas Intermediate futures for July delivery gained over 1% to $94.81, while the international benchmark Brent crude for August delivery advanced 0.88% to $96.84 per barrel.
U.S. Central Command said Tuesday that it had defeated multiple Iranian ballistic missiles and drones and launched defensive strikes following “attempted attacks” by Iran, signaling an escalation in Mideast tensions.
That followed Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying that Washington was still engaged in talks with Iran over a potential deal to halt the conflict, pushing back against Iranian media reports suggesting communications had broken down.
Brent oil prices this year
Rubio also told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that as part of those discussions, “there is the prospect” that Iran “could negotiate aspects of their nuclear program.”
That was contrary to a report by Iran’s Fars news agency on Tuesday that said Tehran and Washington had not exchanged messages for several days. State-linked outlet Tasnim had reported Monday that Iranian negotiators would cease indirect communications with the U.S. and that Tehran would seek to fully shut the Strait of Hormuz, a critical passageway for global crude shipments.
“Fake News Reports that the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the U.S.A., stopped speaking a few days ago are false and erroneous,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Tuesday afternoon.
Analysts at Fitch Group said Tuesday the U.S.-Iran war has caused widespread disruption across the Middle East’s oil and gas sector, with exports collapsing, production shut in and repeated strikes on infrastructure leaving behind billions of dollars in damage and extending recovery timelines.
“Based on our analysis of conflict-related disruptions to production, repair horizons for damaged assets and recovery horizons for shuttered fields, we assess that Qatar, Bahrain and Iraq have faced the heaviest exposure to the conflict,” they said.
— CNBC’s Luke Fountain contributed to this story.
