$70 a barrel oil arrives in the US as prices continue their fall

Brent crude, the global benchmark for crude oil, hasn’t been this low since before the start of the war with Iran. It fell more than 4% at closing time on Wednesday and approached 5% later in trading.

Improved shipping of oil through the Strait of Hormuz sent prices falling even more as investors feel more confident of an end to the fighting that erupted in late February. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Wednesday said 72 ships and 20 million barrels of oil had passed through the Strait of Hormuz in the last 24 hours, “fully restoring pre-conflict flows.”

At the same time, U.S. crude oil inventories dropped to their lowest level since October 1985.

Brent crude, expiring in September, fell 4.3% to $73.50 a barrel. The benchmark is moving closer and closer to $70.

West Texas Intermediate dropped 4.4% to $70.02 a barrel and actually fell to $69.65 earlier in the day on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was WTI’s first drop below $70 since March 2.

Natural gas went the other way, climbing $0.081 or 2.57% to settle at $3.228 MMBtu.

Wednesday was a day of losses for all but three of our Oklahoma energy stocks. Helmerich & Payne fell 8%, NGL Energy Partners dropped 5% and USA Rare Earth finished down 6%.