Oil prices flat as traders assess US-Iran talks, Hormuz closure
A view shows an oil pump jack outside Almetyevsk, in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia July 14, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
LONDON, April 15 : Oil prices were little changed on Wednesday as investors assessed prospects for renewed U.S.–Iran talks and the potential for supply to be released from the Middle East, where exports remain constrained by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Brent crude futures were up 43 cents, or 0.5 per cent, to $95.22 a barrel at 0821 GMT, after falling 4.6 per cent in the previous session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was down 17 cents, or 0.2 per cent, to $91.11. The contract dropped 7.9 per cent the session before.
The war has mostly shut the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for crude and refined product flows out of the Gulf to global buyers, particularly in Asia and Europe.
U.S. President Donald Trump said talks with Tehran on ending the war could resume this week after ending over the weekend without any agreement. But the U.S. has also enacted a blockade of shipping leaving Iranian ports that its military said on Wednesday has completely halted trade going in and out of the country by sea.
Despite a two-week ceasefire, transit through the strait remains uncertain, with traffic at only a fraction of the 130-plus daily crossings that moved through the waterway before the war, sources said on Tuesday.
"The trajectory of oil prices will likely hinge less on battlefield developments and more on diplomatic momentum. Markets are increasingly reacting to headlines around negotiations rather than troop deployments," said Priyanka Sachdeva, senior market analyst at Phillip Nova.
"Each signal of renewed dialogue has been met with price declines, suggesting that traders are systematically unwinding the 'war premium' embedded into crude earlier this month."
Refiners are desperately seeking alternative crude supply, pushing up the premiums they are willing to pay for oil from areas such as the U.S. Gulf Coast and North Sea. A cargo of WTI Midland for delivery to Rotterdam traded at a record premium of $22.80 a barrel above benchmark European prices on Tuesday.
A U.S. destroyer stopped two oil tankers from leaving Iran on Tuesday, a U.S. official said.
"The Strait of Hormuz is not Trump's alone to reopen," said SEB analyst Ole Hvalbye. "Iran has its own calculus, and the regime may find it strategically useful to keep flows restricted even after any peace deal, whether to extract reparations, guarantee security, or simply to inflict political pain ahead of the November U.S. midterm elections."
The market stands to lose some access to further supply after two U.S. administration officials told Reuters on Tuesday the U.S. will not renew a 30-day waiver of sanctions on Iranian oil at sea that expires this week, and quietly let a similar waiver on sanctions on Russian oil expire over the weekend.
Later in the day, markets will be watching for official U.S. inventory data from the Energy Information Administration, due at 10:30 a.m. ET (1430 GMT).
U.S. crude oil stockpiles were expected to have risen slightly last week, while distillate and gasoline inventories likely fell, a Reuters poll showed.
Market sources familiar with American Petroleum Institute figures said on Tuesday U.S. crude oil inventories jumped for a third straight week.
