Both Brent Crude and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) surged 5% each overnight, with WTI holding on to the $82 a barrel level this morning. Brent moved towards the $90 a barrel mark, having closed above $87 a barrel.
In a Truth Social post, Trump demand compensation from Iran for all the people they have killed in past conflicts after Iran reiterated its demand for war damages amounting to over $300 billion.
Trump wrote further that he has instructed his representatives to put these new demands firmly into any and all future negotiations. He also said that the point of compensation never arose in any of their prior meetings.
However, the $300 billion fund for rehabilitation and economic development of Iran is part of the 14-point MoU that Trump himself signed in June on the sidelines of the G7 summit in France.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said that while both Iran and Oman continue to remain engaged in bilateral talks over the future administration of the key energy chokepoint, the Strait would not re-open until the US lifts its naval blockade of Iranian ports.
As of date, only five vessels are transiting the Strait of Hormuz, well below the daily average of 14 that traffic had recovered to after signing of the MoU in June, according to Energy Aspects founder and director of market intelligence, Amrita Sen, who mentioned this stat in a Bloomberg interview.“Given that the strait is still closed, global inventories have been reduced dramatically, and flows are nowhere near normal levels, we could see shorts cover aggressively,” said Bart Melek, global head of commodity strategy at TD Securities. “We continue to expect Brent to trade $10-15 above current levels.”
(With Inputs From Agencies)
