After several ships made it through the Strait of Hormuz under Iranian navy supervision, oil prices nose dived by nearly 6%. At the same time, President trump said the U.S. was in “final stages” of peace talks to end the war with Iran.
Adding to the price fall was a report showing the largest weekly U.S. crude oil inventories draw since mid-February. Exports hovered near record levels as the U.S continued its effort to fill the gap caused by the closure of the Strait.
West Texas Intermediate crude fell 6.1% or nearly $5.70 a barrel to $98.13 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent crude futures expiring in July fell 6.5% or more than $6 a barrel to finish at $104.87. Earlier this week, it had reached as high as $112 a barrel.
The decline in prices came after two Chinese-flagged supertankers carrying oil exited the Strait on Wednesday. It raised hopes for a renewal to supply flows the waterway that is considered vital for oil shipments from Middle Eastern oil producing countries. South Korean-flagged Very Large Crude Carrier Universal Winner is also leaving the narrow conduit off of Iran’s southern coast, which has been effectively closed to tanker traffic since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran in late February.
Natural gas prices also dipped Wednesday, closing at $3.037 MMBtu with a fall of $0.077 or 2.54%.
Wednesday was another tough day for Oklahoma energy stocks as only three firms made it into and finished in positive territory. The rest finished with losses including a more than 8% decline at Empire Petroleum Corp.
On the plus side, USA Rare Earth shot up 13% and Stardust Petroleum added 11%.