London
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Oil prices rebounded Wednesday, as worries about a prolonged supply disruption in the Strait of Hormuz outweighed a report of a potential record release of oil reserves.\n <\/p>\n
\n Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, gained around 4% to trade above $91 a barrel after falls earlier in the day. WTI, the US benchmark, rose about 4.5% to around $87 a barrel.\n <\/p>\n
\n The rally in prices followed sharp declines Tuesday, suggesting traders may be skeptical that a reported proposal by the International Energy Agency to release oil reserves will be enough to offset the current oil supply shock<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal reported the IEA would propose to release as much as 400 million barrels of oil into the market from various countries\u2019 strategic petroleum reserves. That would easily exceed the 182 million barrels of oil that they put onto the market in two tranches in 2022 when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.\n <\/p>\n \n The Group of Seven nations are expected to decide on the proposal Wednesday, the Journal reported, citing officials. CNN has contacted the IEA for comment.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cDepending on the actual size of the reserve release, we could see some capping in oil prices in the coming days,\u201d said Francesco Pesole, a strategist at Dutch bank ING, noting that 20 million barrels a day are currently being lost as a result of the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cHowever, (the release of oil reserves) is a temporary measure, and only military de-escalation can drive crude sustainably lower,\u201d he wrote in a note.\n <\/p>\n \n At least for now, there are few signs of de-escalation in the conflict<\/a>. Iran said early Wednesday that it had launched its \u201cmost intense and heaviest operation\u201d<\/a> since the start of the war, according to state media, while Israel announced an additional wave of strikes on Tehran.\n <\/p>\n \n Also on Wednesday, three vessels were reported to have been hit by unknown projectiles near the Strait of Hormuz, according to the UK maritime agency.\n <\/p>\n \n Ordinarily, about a fifth of global oil production flows through the strait daily. The near-blockade of the waterway has caused crude prices to soar, with Brent still about 26% above the $73 level it was trading at before the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. WTI is trading about 31% higher.\n <\/p>\n \n On Monday, both prices surged above $100 a barrel for the first time in almost four years, only to plunge the following day. Brent crude settled more than 11% lower Tuesday, from the previous day\u2019s close, at $87.80 a barrel \u2013 its largest one-day decline since March 2022.\n <\/p>\n \n The drop was largely driven by earlier comments from US President Donald Trump that the war would be over \u201cvery soon,\u201d as well as an announcement by Saudi Aramco, the world\u2019s top oil producer, that it would ramp up crude flows via its pipeline to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, allowing it to resume 70% of its usual oil shipments.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cUntil we move onto the next big event, markets continue to be driven by volatile news flow around Iran and the outlook for oil flows,\u201d Jim Reid, head of global macroeconomic research at Deutsche Bank, wrote in a note Wednesday. \u201cOverall, the narrative has shifted towards a cautiously more optimistic tone, even as there\u2019s little sign of an imminent end to the conflict.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Stock markets were mixed Wednesday, highlighting the disparate signals coming from oil markets. In Asia, South Korea\u2019s Kospi finished 1.4% higher, while Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng and Japan\u2019s Nikkei fell. European markets were down across the board in early trade. US futures were flat.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"London \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 Oil prices rebounded Wednesday, as worries about a prolonged supply disruption in the Strait of Hormuz…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,184,85,46],"class_list":["post-333382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}