Bent was near $76 a barrel after declining over 2% in the previous session, while West Texas Intermediate was under $72 a barrel.
Technical talks between the two sides are continuing, according to a US official, who said Washington was still committed to finding a solution. The status of an earlier truce remained unclear after President Donald Trump said the deal was over.
Following a spate of attacks on vessels in Hormuz, US forces hit targets in the Islamic Republic over two days this week, prompting retaliatory strikes by Tehran on American bases in the region. Still, the two sides have stopped short of a return to all-out war, and some stipulations of their interim deal — which has not yet been formally scrapped — are still being observed.
Oil remains higher for the week, with observed transits through Hormuz slowed substantially by the hostilities. Traders will be monitoring output and sales from Persian Gulf producers, including from top exporter Saudi Arabia, which is due to release monthly allocations of crude to customers shortly.
Vessel traffic in Hormuz appeared to have ground to a near halt as of Thursday, and traders are watching if movements will resume. Even so, the trickle of tankers that made it out in recent weeks means a backlog of vessels that had been stuck inside the Persian Gulf has now been largely cleared.
US Central Command said “Iran does not control the Strait of Hormuz,” according to a post on X. Since May, American forces helped more than 800 vessels transit the waterway, it added. The conduit links Gulf producers to global markets, and its standing has been one of the major sticking points in the US-Iran war, with Tehran seeking to exercise greater control over traffic.
With inputs from Bloomberg
