WTI crude futures broke through $90/bl in trading earlier on Friday with the US-Iran war now in its seventh day and a resolution far from clear.
April Nymex WTI was trading at $90.13/bl by 12:00pm ET on Friday, up by $9.12/bl from the prior day settle with the US, Israel and Iran exchanging fire throughout the region.
Prices have climbed by more than $23/bl, or 35pc, in the past week with fighting in the Middle Ease curtailing supply. Most vessel owners are unwilling to transit the strait of Hormuz — a key chokepoint for oil and LNG exports from the Mideast Gulf — although some vessels have make the journey.
Iran's president Masoud Pezeshkian said on Friday that mediation efforts are underway to help end the war in the Middle East.
"Some countries have begun mediation efforts," Pezeshkian said in a post on social media platform X. He did not name any.
But US president Donald Trump posted on his social media platform hours later that "There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!".
The US administration is relaxing its sanctions against Russia's energy sector to allow India to temporarily import Russian crude, as a way to mitigate Mideast Gulf supply disruption in the wake of the US-Israel war against Iran.
The waiver released late on Thursday by US Treasury Department's sanctions enforcement arm Office of Foreign Assets Control will allow importers in India to buy Russian crude loaded on or before 5 March and deliver it to a port in India on or before 4 April.
South Korea's government is in talks with the country's refiners about measures to manage the fallout from the Iran conflict, including tapping the country's strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) and possibly imposing a ban on oil product exports, sources told Argus today.
