- April 14, 2026
- Posted by: EWGFX
- Category: news
Oil prices fell on Tuesday as signs of possible talks to end the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran eased supply risks stemming from the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reported.
Brent futures edged 62 cents lower, or around 0.6%, to $98.74 at 0828 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell $2.30, or 2.3%, to $96.78.
Both benchmarks rose in the previous session, with Brent climbing more than 4% and WTI nearly 3%, after the U.S. military began a blockade of Iran’s ports. Oil prices rose 50% last month, a record.
While talk about the resumption of U.S.-Iran talks put downward pressure on prices, the move lower ignores the loss of physical barrels of oil that are notmoving, PVM Oil Associates’ analyst Tamas Varga said.
Attacks on energy infrastructure in the Middle East and Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz have led to the largest oil supply disruption in history, the International Energy Agency said in its monthly report, with 10.1 million bpd lost in March.
The U.S. military on Monday said its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would extend east to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, while ship-tracking data showed two ships turned around in the strait as the blockade started. NATO allies, including Britain and France, refrained from joining the blockade, calling instead for the waterway to reopen.
In response, Iran threatened to target ports in nations bordering the Gulf, following the collapse of weekend talks in Islamabad aimed at resolving the crisis over the strait, which in normal times is a passageway for about a fifth of global oil and gas supplies.
However, three Iran-linked tankers entered the Gulf and were allowed to pass since their destinations were not Iranian ports, shipping datashowed.
Negotiating teams from the U.S. and Iran could return to Islamabad later this week, five sources told Reuters. A U.S. official also said there was continued engagement on trying to get to an agreement while Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also said efforts were still underway.
“In case talks between the adversaries fail to bear fruit, even revisiting the March highs cannot be ruled out as the decline in global oil inventories might spill into the third quarter and beyond,” Varga added.
The IEA sharply cut its forecasts for global oil supply and demand growth, with demand expected to fall by 80,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2026 and supply expected to decline by 1.5 million bpd in 2026.