** Oil prices sank about 4% after reports the US had sent Iran a 15-point proposal aimed at ending the war in the Middle East, raising prospects of a ceasefire that could ease supply disruptions in the region.
** Brent slipped back under $100 as Iran signaled it may let some non‑combatant ships through the Strait of Hormuz.
** Two tankers bound for India sailed through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday carrying liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) loaded in the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, although overall traffic through the critical waterway remained blocked. Hundreds of vessels and some 20,000 seafarers have remained stranded inside the Gulf since Tehran threatened to attack ships attempting to leave via the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas normally flow.
** Iran has laid at least a dozen mines in the Strait of Hormuz, US intelligence officials have claimed. Some 20 per cent of the world’s oil is shipped through the narrow passageway, but the flow has been paralysed because of Iranian threats to tankers off its coast. Now, US officials have reported that there are at least a dozen Maham 3 and Maham 7 Limpet Mines in the water, which will need careful extraction before safe travel can resume.
** U.N. Security Council members have begun negotiating resolutions to protect commercial shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz, including a Bahraini draft that would authorize the use of “all necessary means” — language France has warned will be difficult to adopt.
** Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday declared a state of national energy emergency to respond to the impact of the Middle East war, which his administration said posed “an imminent danger of a critically low energy supply.”
** Libyan authorities were towing a Russian tanker drifting in the Mediterranean for the past three weeks, after the vessel was damaged in a suspected sea drone attack, officials said Tuesday.
US
** Valero prepares to restart a Texas refinery after an explosion and fire led to a temporary shutdown and a shelter-in-place order for nearby residents.
** Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezand Sen. Bernie Sanders are floating legislation that would block new data centers until Congress puts new environmental and community safeguards in place.
** Maryland’s Supreme Court rules against reviving three local lawsuits, struck down by lower courts, that accused fossil fuel companies of deceiving consumers about the environmental impacts of their products.
** Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger creates a new “chief energy officer” position in her cabinet and appoints an environmental lawyer to fill it.