Crude oil was down by nearly 2 per cent on Wednesday as optimism over US-Iran talks eased supply concerns after US President Donald Trump said discussions in Qatar had gone well.
Brent futures gave up $1.38 or 1.89 per cent to sell for $71.57 a barrel, and the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude lost 92 cents or 1.32 per cent to trade at $68.58 a barrel.
President Trump said on Wednesday that the US was getting along very well with Iran and that recent meetings in Qatar went well.
“The denuclearisation of Iran is moving along well,” the American President told reporters. “They’ve had very good meetings, and we’ll see.”
The US and Iran held technical talks in Doha as they seek to agree on the flow of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and secure a lasting ceasefire, a source with direct knowledge of the talks and an Iranian official said.
The US and Iran have sparred publicly over the meaning of the interim pact, exchanging military strikes over the past week.
Meanwhile, US Vice President JD Vance again signalled that the White House is prepared to use force against Iran if diplomacy fails, raising the stakes around a 60-day memorandum of understanding (MOU) that has halted open hostilities but left the core disputes unresolved.
Crude oil inventories in the United States decreased by 3.8 million barrels during the week ending June 26, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Wednesday. The EIA’s data release follows figures by the American Petroleum Institute (API) that were released a day earlier, which reported that crude oil inventories saw a draw of 6.072 million barrels in the period.
Analysts have cut their 2026 oil price forecasts for the first time since the Iran war began, as the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz eased concerns over prolonged supply disruptions.
Meanwhile, a sub-group of oil-producing countries in the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) will likely agree on a further hike in their output targets from August when they meet on Sunday. The target will increase by about 188,000 barrels per day for August, the same as for June and July.
The seven core OPEC+ members have increased their output quotas from April to July by almost 800,000 barrels per day even as the Iran war led to a sharp drop in production among key members.
