Conflicting signal on Iran-US deal sends brent crude to two-month low

Oil prices slid to a two-month low as conflicting signals from Washington and Tehran fueled uncertainty over a potential U.S.-Iran deal, keeping traders on edge throughout a volatile week.

In a particularly volatile trading week, the allocation of roles between Iran and the United States seemed to have switched constantly. If an impending deal was announced by US President Trump, Tehran would deny it, and vice versa, if the Iranian leadership broke the media silence with talks of a breakthrough, Trump would castigate them for being ‘weak and pathetic’. All in all, the pricing downside prevailed this week with ICE Brent falling to a two-month low of $88 per barrel.

Chinese refiners have nominated a record-low volume of term Saudi crude barrels loading in July, with only 12 million barrels (or 387,000 b/d) expected to load next month as the relatively high cost of Aramco’s formula prices dissuaded buying interest.

OPEC’s monthly report, published this Thursday, saw the Vienna-based organization’s second straight downward correction for 2026 demand growth, now expecting this year’s consumption growth to be ‘only’ 970,000 b/d, down 200,000 b/d from a month ago.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced that the US military helps move 7 million b/d of crude out of the Persian Gulf, as demonstrated by recent spot tenders issued by the UAE and Kuwait for barrels loading outside of Hormuz, in Sohar and Fujairah.

Boosted by TMX’s rise, Canada’s Alberta government is planning to start the construction of a new 1 million b/d pipeline bringing heavy crude to the country’s Pacific Coast in 2027, citing strong interest from Chinese, Indonesian and South Korean refiners.

The Trump administration has sanctioned Cuba’s state-owned oil company Cupet, expropriated from Exxon by Fidel Castro in 1960, claiming that the island nation is leveraging energy trade to repress its own people, leading to fuel shortages and blackouts.

India’s Foreign Ministry has filed a formal protest to the United States for their military strikes on at least three commercial vessels off the coast of Oman, with three Indian sailors killed in the June 10 strike on the Palau-flagged Settebello product tanker.

Venezuela’s interim Rodriguez government has signed five agreements with UK-based energy major Shell (LON:SHEL) to advance oil and gas projects, including the giant 7 Tof Loran offshore field straddling the border with Trinidad and Tobago.

Australian oil major Woodside (ASX:WDS) has exercised its pre-emptive right to acquire PetroChina’s 10.67% stake in the Browse gas fields offshore Western Australia, derailing the Chinese NOC’s deal with Japan’s Inpex agreed earlier last month.

Egypt’s Ministry of Petroleum informed that it had settled all previous debt owed to international oil and gas companies operating in the North African country, with arrears peaking at $6.1 billion in the summer of 2024, seeking to restore the trust of upstream investors.

China’s Commerce Ministry issued the 2nd batch of clean product export quotas for 2026 to struggling refiners, nearly 2 months later compared to its usual schedule, allowing for 103 million barrels of exports with Sinopec and PetroChina getting the most.

The African government of Zambia has received near-unanimous backing from bondholders for its innovative $1.36 billion debt buyback deal that conditions the repurchase of its 2053 sovereign bond on the country upgrading its electricity grid network.

Repeated Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian refineries have left an imprint on Russia’s upstream performance as OPEC reported its production at 9.01 million b/d in May, a 12-month low that trended some 690,000 b/d below its OPEC+ output quota.

The provincial government of Newfoundland has opened up three offshore basins for exploration in its upcoming licensing round, seeking to boost production from its current level of 315,000 b/d as legacy offshore fields such as Hibernia or Hebron continue to mature.

Asia’s spot LNG prices jumped to their highest in 11 weeks, with August-delivery cargoes now assessed at $19.20 per MMBtu, driven by widespread anticipation of heatwaves triggered by this year’s El Niño and lower-than-average gas stocks in South Korea and Japan.

Norwegian aluminium company Norsk Hydro has declared a second force majeure on aluminium sales from Qatar after its Qatalum JV unexpectedly terminated its marketing agreement, foreshadowing a long recovery in Qatari aluminium output.

About The Author

Dele Fashomi

Dele Fashomi, seasoned journalist and communication teacher, is a holder of Master of Arts degree in Communication and Language Arts from the University of Ibadan in 1992/93.

Earlier, he had bagged a Bachelor degree from the same university in 1984, after which he proceeded to the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Lagos, in 1990, for a postgraduate diploma in Journalism.

He had done many courses in communication, including the EU-BBC Editing Course in 2002.

Mr. Fashomi combines effectively the practice, research and teaching of communication. And to date, he has published two academic works in communication: Issues in Communication Technology and Policy (2010) and Economic and Social Issues in Advertising and PR (2013).

He had his first break in the Nigerian media in Concord Newspapers in 1990 and today, he has over two and half decades experience earned in several newspapers.

He has been part of many start-ups, such as The Republic (1987), The Comet (1999), The Anchor 2001 – 2002; Sun Newspapers (2003); Westerner newsmagazine (2005 – 2010) as Editor; National Life (2011) as Sunday Editor, and Newswatch Newspapers (2012- 2016) as Daily Editor.

Dele Fashomi is now the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Newstide247.com newspaper online, which he started in July 2015. He is also into biography writing, with many books in his trail, some of which he wrote alone and one he co- authored with his mentor, Mr Dare Babarinsa, entitled:  Olabiyi Durojaiye – DARE TO BE DiFFERENT. He also guided and collaborated with Pa Olatunji Odusanya in writing his autobiography – AGAINST ALL ODDS. There are many other books in the works under his pen.

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