Stalemate—it’s the word being used to describe the peacetalks between Iran and the U.S. and while investors and the oil and gas industry waits for the latest news on the war, oil prices gained about 1% on Tuesday and reached a one-week high in volatile trade. Prices remained below $100 a barrel.
West Texas Intermediate crude in the U.S. rose $1.60 or 1.7% and settled at $93.76 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent crude finished up $1.02 or1.1% at $96 a barrel.
Those were the highest closes for both benchmarks since May 26.
Here’s what’s happening in the war. Iran claims it has not had communication with Washington for a few days while President Trump says negotiations are ongoing. It’s been three months since the U.S. struck Iran over its reported development of a nuclear bomb. The ceasefire remains shaky at best and all the while, oil is not flowing via tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. It’s been largely shut down.
Most non-Iranian shipping in and out of the Gulf has been halted by Iran and as a result, nearly a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies have been slammed. Prices have risen by 50% or more.
Natural gas prices dipped on Tuesday and settled at $3.163 MMBtu with a decline of $0.016 or 0.50%.
Most Oklahoma energy stocks finished on the positive side Tuesday. Mammoth Energy finished up more than 5% and Diversified Energy gained a strong 4%.
