Strait of Hormuz reopens and oil prices continue their fall

After a weekend flareup in peace talks between Iran and the U.S., Vice President JD Vance said the Strait of Hormuz is once again open and crude oil tankers are starting to pass. As a result, crude oil prices continued their fall as Brent crude, the global benchmark, dropped nearly 3% and was only $8 higher than the pre-war settlements on Monday.

At the same time, government data shows U.S. emergency stockpiles of oil are at their lowest levels since June 1983.

Brent crude finished down 2.7% or more than $2 a barrel at $77.90 a barrel.

West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. standard, dropped more than $1.60 or 2% to $74,31 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Vance says Hormuz is ’open’ after weekend flare-up

“It is open” Vance asserted. Later, just before departing Switzerland, he told reporters that “we saw we think about 15 million barrels of oil come out” of the strait, without specifying over what period.

Military operations on all fronts have reportedly ceased, including in Lebanon, and a 60-day period of more negotiations has started toward a final peace deal. The reopening of the critical Strait of Hormuz included no charges or tolls during the two-month negotiations. Iran also reaffirmed it would not procure or develop nuclear weapons and the enriched material it has on hand will be disposed through a mutually agreed upon mechanism.

Natural gas prices did the opposite and finished up for the day. The closing price was $3.245 MMBtu with a gain of $0.012 or 0.37%.

It was mostly another split day for Oklahoma energy stocks with some recording gains and other losses. Empire Petroleum and Stardust Power each recorded setbacks of nearly 6% while Alliance Resource Partners and Ovintiv Inc. rose about 4%.