Oil Holds Near Four-month Lows As Hormuz Traffic Improves
(RTTNews) - Oil prices held near four-month lows on Wednesday amid indications that more tankers stranded in the Gulf since the start of the Iran war were beginning to move through the Strait of Hormuz.
Brent crude futures for September delivery fell 1.8 percent to $75.44 a barrel, while WTI crude futures for August delivery were down 1.9 percent at $71.79.
Supply concerns subsided, with reports indicating early encouraging signs of increased tanker activity through the Strait of Hormuz.
Markets are also factoring in the possibility of Iranian oil returning to global markets and the key shipping route normalizing, following the recent signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between Washington and Tehran.
The International Maritime Organization said it will begin to implement a plan to evacuate more than 11,000 seafarers through the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway through which one-fifth of the world's oil is typically transported.
The U.S.-Iran peace agreement helped ease regional tensions, but disputes persist over whether Tehran had agreed to allow U.N. inspections of its nuclear sites.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Iran are offering conflicting accounts of their fragile peace deal, raising doubts about its viability.
Iran's chief negotiator and parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, has made it clear that the vital waterway will "never return to what it was before the war."
Meanwhile, Iran and Oman said they would examine charges for what they called maritime service fees in the Strait of Hormuz through a joint working group.
The U.S. and Iran also remain at odds over frozen assets and Israel's parallel war against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
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