Oil prices ease as Iran says prepared to take steps to reach deal with US
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[NEW YORK] Oil prices closed down 1 per cent on Tuesday after Iran said it was prepared to take any necessary steps to clinch a deal with the US ahead of nuclear talks later this week.
Brent futures settled at US$70.77 per barrel, down 72 cents or 1 per cent. WTI futures settled at US$65.63, down 68 cents or 1.0 per cent.
Iran, the third-biggest crude producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, and the US will hold a third round of nuclear talks on Thursday in Geneva, Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said on Sunday. The US wants Iran to give up its nuclear programme. Iran has denied it is trying to develop an atomic weapon.
Iran’s deputy foreign minister said on Tuesday that Tehran was ready to take any necessary steps to reach a deal with the US.
Swiss bank UBS said it expected a modest decline in oil prices in coming weeks provided there was no escalation of tensions in the Middle East that could disrupt supply.
US crude prices include a US$3 to US$4 a barrel geopolitical risk premium because of tensions between the US and Iran, the director of North Dakota’s Mineral Resources Department said on Monday. North Dakota is the No. 3 US oil-producing state. The oil industry needs crude prices to rise and sustain at US$70 per barrel in order to grow output, energy executives said.
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The US State Department is pulling out non-essential government personnel and their families from the US embassy in Beirut, a senior official said on Monday, as concerns mount about the risk of a military conflict with Iran, which, sources said, was close to a deal with China to purchase anti-ship cruise missiles.
US tariffs and oil supplies
Meanwhile, the US began collecting a temporary new 10 per cent global import tariff on Tuesday, but President Donald Trump’s administration was working to increase it to 15 per cent, a White House official said, sowing confusion over tariff policies after last week’s Supreme Court defeat.
On the supply front, trading houses and buyers of Venezuelan oil have chartered the first very large crude carriers to export from the South American country since a Caracas-Washington supply deal began.
This is set to speed up shipments from March while boosting deliveries to India, according to sources and data. The European Commission will submit a legal proposal to permanently ban Russian oil imports on April 15, three days after Hungary’s parliamentary election, according to EU officials and a document seen by Reuters.
Russia’s oil pipeline monopoly Transneft has cut crude intake into its system by some 250,000 barrels per day, two sources familiar with the situation said on Tuesday, a day after Ukrainian drones attacked a pumping station serving major oil hubs and ports.
US oil inventories
The market was also awaiting weekly storage reports from the American Petroleum Institute trade group on Tuesday and the US Energy Information Administration on Wednesday. Analysts projected energy firms added 1.5 million barrels of crude to storage during the week ended Feb 20. REUTERS
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