By Radarr Africa Business Desk
NEW YORK, November 11 (Radarr Africa) – Brent crude settled at $91.49 a barrel on Tuesday, down $1.08, or 1.17%, its lowest close since August 31, extending a slide driven by signs that the US-Iran conflict could move towards a negotiated end.
On Monday, Brent fell as much as 7.9% to $90.56 and settled 5.9% lower at $92.57. West Texas Intermediate settled 4.4% lower at $86.85 on Monday and slipped a further 0.93% to $86.04 on Tuesday. Brent briefly traded below $90 on Tuesday.
President Donald Trump said on CNN that renewed strikes on Iran were ‘highly unlikely’ to be necessary. Arne Rasmussen of Global Risk Management said Trump ‘clearly prefers a diplomatic solution’. Bloomberg linked the decline to hopes for de-escalation involving Iran and recovering Persian Gulf flows.
The fall followed Republican losses in the US midterm elections, and Brent recorded its biggest weekly drop since April 2020. Dated Brent, the physical benchmark, traded at $92.25 on Monday, after peaking at $136.39 on October 5.
Energy Aspects warned that Iran is unlikely to make new concessions, which could prolong talks and keep a risk premium in the market. Tankers have also been hit in the Strait of Hormuz, and a single strike or a failure of talks could push prices back up.
The swings have been large. Brent fell nearly 8% on November 4, dipping below $100 for the first time since early October, and rose $3.67 to $98.29 on Friday, November 6, on uncertainty over a Middle East settlement, before Monday’s fall.
Iranian officials say the two sides remain far from an agreement, while US officials have said the military is finishing preparations for possible major combat, so the market is trading on diplomacy that has not yet produced a result.
In Nigeria, where fuel prices have tracked crude since subsidy removal, falls in crude usually reach pump prices within days to weeks, although renewed conflict could push crude and pump prices back up.
