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\n\tAll eyes are now focused on attempts to get the peace talks back on track: File Image\/Pixabay<\/p>\n
\u201c<\/p>\n \n\tWe\u2019ve been in this situation multiple times before, which \u200cultimately led to disappointment<\/p>\n ING<\/p>\n
\n\tAs anticipated by many hawks, Iran\u2019s refusal<\/a>\u00a0 to agree to a crucial component of peace talk negotiations with the U.S. caused chaos in oil trading on Thursday, while the International Energy Agency warned that the oil market was barreling towards as \u201cred zone\u201d with the continued blockage of the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
\n\tAs of 18:30 GMT and after prices rose over 3 percent earlier in the session, Brent fell 31 cents to $104.71 and West Texas Intermediate rose 16 cents to $98.42 per barrel.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe initial price rise occurred after media reported that Iran\u2019s supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei ordered the country\u2019s enriched uranium to remain in the Islamic republic, which was viewed as a complication of peace talks because of U.S. president Donald Trump\u2019s repeated demand that Iran\u2019s nuclear program be dismantled.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe development came a day after Iran announced a new ‘Persian Gulf Strait Authority,’ which would oversee a “controlled maritime zone” in \u2060the Strait \u2013 something Washington andmany world leaders have condemned as unacceptable.<\/p>\n
\n\tPakistan\u2019s army chief, Asim Munir, was reportedly<\/a>\u00a0en route to Tehran to help get the peace talks back on track, as secretary of state Marco Rubio told media, \u201cThe president\u2019s preference is to do a good deal; that\u2019s his preference; it\u2019s always been his preference\u2026If we can get a good deal done, that would be great.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBut former Trump envoy Morgan Ortagus warned that Iran has long used drawn-out negotiations \u201cto stall, to draw negotiations, to buy time\u2026I would encourage the president not to fall into the trap that the Iranians like to do \u2026 which is to drag things out.”<\/p>\n
\n\tING analysts forecast in a note on Thursday that Brent would average $104 per barrel in the current quarter and said<\/a>, “We\u2019ve been in this situation multiple times before, which \u200cultimately led to disappointment.”<\/p>\n
\n\tUPS on Thursday raised \u2060its oil price forecasts by $10 per barrel, projecting Brent crude at $105 per barrel and WTI crude at $97 in September.<\/p>\n
\n\tMeanwhile, the IEA\u2019s executive director, Fatih Birol, warned<\/a>\u00a0that summer demand combined with rapidly falling inventories could push global oil markets into a \u201cred zone in July-August if we don’t see some improvements.”<\/p>\n
\n\tBirol considered the disruption of flows thanks to the Strait blockage more severe than the oil shocks of 1973, 1979, and even the 2022 energy crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n