Oil prices erase gains after Iran says U.S. talks could be pursued based on national interests
American forces have started ninth consecutive night of strikes against Iranian targets.
Hollif
An aerial view taken from an helicopter during a media visit shows five platforms over the Johan Sverdrup oil field in the North Sea some 140 kilometres west from the town of Stavanger, Norway, on December 3, 2019. (Photo by Tom LITTLE / AFP) (Photo by TOM LITTLE/AFP via Getty Images)
Tom Little | Afp | Getty Images
Oil prices were mixed on Monday, erasing gains after Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said negotiations with the U.S. could be pursued based on national interests.
Speaking to reporters at a news conference, Baghaei said intermediaries had continued to exchange messages with Iran amid the latest round of U.S. strikes and American military casualties.
International benchmark Brent crude for September delivery was last seen little changed for the session at $88.14 per barrel, having surpassed $90 earlier in the day. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery, meanwhile, dipped 0.5% at $82.08, also erasing gains.
The latest moves come after the U.S. military confirmed a third American service member had been killed in recent operations, while investigators recovered unidentified remains near the site of an Iranian attack in Jordan that had previously left two U.S. personnel dead and another missing.
American forces completed a ninth consecutive night of strikes against Iranian targets. "The strikes will continue degrading Iranian military capabilities used to attack commercial vessels and civilian mariners transiting the Strait of Hormuz," the U.S. Central Command said in a statement on X.
The renewed hostilities have revived concerns about the security of one of the world's most important oil transit routes. The Strait of Hormuz typically handles around 20% of the world's oil traffic, although shipments have fallen sharply amid the latest cycle of attacks.
U.S. Centcom has targeted Iranian coastal surveillance and air defense systems, maritime assets, as well as missile and drone storage facilities in its strikes. American forces have also struck Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps units linked to the July 17 attack on U.S. personnel in Jordan.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard has claimed that it maintains full control over the Strait of Hormuz and renewed its pledge that "not a single drop of oil, gas, or chemical fertilizer" will pass through the waterway, according to Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency.
Amrita Sen, founder and director of research at Energy Aspects, said a substantial slowdown in shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and depleted global inventories could push oil prices to more than $100 per barrel.
"Do we think prices should or could go to triple digits? Absolutely. Remember the market is short as well, right? It was a market that went heavily short as soon as Hormuz was starting to reopen, that's why we went into the seventies. So, those shorts are still covering as we speak and I think that's one of the other momentums you are starting to get," Sen told CNBC's "Access Middle East" on Monday.
"The market is still quite complacent despite the price increase we have seen. I have macro funds telling me, 'well, you know, we have had this before, we didn't really go up much above $100, what's so different this time, we have AI to worry about,'" Sen said.
"So, this is still not front and center for most people in the market."
