Oil prices fall as Trump pauses attacks on Iranian energy plants

PERTH: Oil prices fell in early trade on Friday and were down over a volatile week after US President Donald Trump said talks with Iran to end the war were going “very well” ​and announced he would pause attacks on the country’s energy plants for 10 days. Brent ‌futures fell 90 cents, or 0.8%, to $107.11 per barrel as of 0024 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures lost 83 cents, or 0.88%, to $93.65 per barrel, trimming gains from a bullish previous session. On Thursday, Brent rose 5.7% while ​WTI gained 4.6% on fears of further escalation of the war, although trading volume for ​the front-month Brent contract was the lowest since February 27, the day before ⁠the United States and Israel began strikes on Iran. However, Brent is headed for its first weekly fall ​in six weeks while WTI has fallen for a second consecutive week, with Trump talking up the prospect ​of ending the war. “As per Iranian Government request … I am pausing the period of Energy Plant destruction by 10 Days to Monday, April 6, 2026, at 8 P.M., Eastern Time,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on ​Thursday. An Iranian official told Reuters that a 15-point U.S. proposal, conveyed to Tehran by Pakistan, was ​reviewed in detail on Wednesday by senior Iranian officials and the representative of Iran’s supreme leader. The official called ‌the plan “one-side ⁠and unfair”. The US president said on Thursday that Iran was letting 10 oil tankers transit the Strait of Hormuz as a goodwill gesture in negotiations. He said they were Pakistan-flagged vessels. However, the US has also sent thousands of troops to the Middle East, with Trump weighing whether to use ground forces to ​seize Iran’s strategic oil ​hub of Kharg Island. The war ⁠has nearly halted shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, which typically carries about a fifth of the world’s crude oil and LNG supply, with International ​Energy Agency chief Fatih Birol describing the crisis as worse than the two oil ​shocks of ⁠the 1970s, as well as the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war on gas, put together. The war on Iran has taken 11 million barrels of oil per day from global supply. “For today, the markets are not assuming ⁠a ​huge impact, particularly in oil. If you look at the ​forward curve, they’re assuming this will end quite fast and things will stabilise quite quickly,” Macquarie chief executive Shemara Wikramanayake told the ​Asia Pacific Financial and Innovation Symposium in Melbourne on Thursday.

Go to News Site