By Adedapo Adesanya
The crude oil market rose by about $1 a barrel on Wednesday on stalled US-Iran peace talks and tightening US fuel markets, with Brent up by 91 cents or 0.9 per cent to $103.50 per barrel, and US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) chalking up $1.04 or 1.2 per cent to settle at $90.42 per barrel.
Brent recorded a monthly gain of around 14 per cent, its biggest since July, while WTI increased by about 5 per cent.
Qatar said on Tuesday it hopes that shuttle diplomacy between Iran and the US can lead to a breakthrough.
However, US President Donald Trump denied reports by Axios and CNN that cited US officials as saying he was willing to give Iran sanctions relief and release frozen Iranian funds in return for “concrete” steps by Iran on its nuclear programme.
US economic data also supported oil prices, with Commerce Department data showing inflation increased less than expected in August, likely reducing the urgency for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates again in October.
The market also continued to weigh developments as Saudi Arabia resumed oil tanker loadings from its Red Sea port of Yanbu after restarting operations on its East-West Pipeline on Tuesday.
Data from Kpler has suggested oil exports from the Persian Gulf have rebounded strongly this month, with Strait of Hormuz flows alone at 13.2 million barrels daily, or 77 per cent of pre-war levels.
Market analysts noted that improving supplies could cap further gains but renewed disruption or an escalation in tensions could trigger another rally.
The US Energy Information Agency (EIA) said crude inventories in the world’s largest oil producer rose by 922,000 barrels to 427.3 million barrels in the week ended September 25.
Meanwhile, the White House has reportedly urged the European Union to draw down emergency diesel inventories in an effort to lower global prices.
Some key producers in the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+) are set to leave their current crude oil output quotas unchanged for November at a meeting this weekend.
In the early September monthly meeting, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, and Oman decided to maintain the September 2026 required production quotas for October 2026, after having unwound a total of 1.65 million barrels per day of collective cuts that began in 2023.
OPEC+ has been raising nominal production quotas for most of this year, but actual supply to the market has been well below the required levels of production, due to the Middle East conflict.