Tanker traffic via the Strait of Hormuz slowed further over the weekend, maintaining upward pressure on oil prices.
At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at $88.62 per barrel, with West Texas Intermediate at $82.18 per barrel. Earlier in the session, Brent crude broke above $89 per barrel before falling back.
Only five commodity vessels passed the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, and none were scheduled to transit the waterway on Sunday, data from Kpler cited by Reuters showed. The data, however, does not include tankers that transit Hormuz in so-called dark mode. That compares with 31 tankers passing the Strait of Hormuz the previous weekend.
Last week, reports about slowing Hormuz traffic boosted oil for a 5% weekly gain, reinforced by fresh attacks on tankers in the Persian Gulf. The United Arab Emirates has accused Iran of striking three ADNOC tankers last week, with two of the attacks taking place on Thursday and the third one on Friday. Also last week, the Yemeni Houthis said they had struck an Aramco refinery in Jazan.
During the weekend, a statement by Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi about Iran not planning to hold peace talks with the United States added upward pressure to prices. So did a statement by the U.S. president that Americans would have to live with higher gasoline prices for the time being.
“Oil prices have now rebounded almost completely from the lows seen in early August, as hopes for a more permanent resolution between the U.S. and Iran have faded and geopolitical risk premiums have returned to the market,” Phillip Nova analyst Priyanka Sachdeva said, as quoted by Reuters.
Separately, Bloomberg reported that tankers moving in and out of Hormuz with their transponders off were keeping a lid on prices. News about a massive build in U.S. oil inventories helped keep prices below peaks reached earlier in the year.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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