By Radarr Africa Business Desk
NEW YORK, November 12 (Radarr Africa) – The US Strategic Petroleum Reserve has fallen to 279.5 million barrels, its lowest level since October 1982, according to US Department of Energy data cited by Reuters.
The reading came as oil markets reacted to signs of easing tension between Washington and Tehran. Brent crude futures fell almost 5 per cent on Monday, November 9, to their lowest since early September, trading at $93.75 a barrel in New York at 12:04 p.m. EDT, down $4.57. US West Texas Intermediate fell $3.19 to $87.64.
Brent had already dropped 16 per cent the previous week, touching a two-month low of $93.22, its steepest weekly decline since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dated Brent, the physical benchmark, slipped to a discount to nearby futures, according to a Morgan Stanley report.
JP Morgan estimated the global oil surplus at about 1.4 million barrels a day for October. A Reuters survey found that OPEC’s 11 members raised output by 1.38 million barrels a day to 22.87 million barrels a day in the month.
US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that new strikes on Iran were highly unlikely while talks to end the war continued. He was due to meet Qatar’s prime minister on Monday. Qatar has been a mediator, but US and Gulf officials doubt that a deal is imminent.
A senior Iranian security official said Tehran will not negotiate unless Washington meets seven conditions from a June interim agreement. Both sides reported shipping hits in or near the Strait of Hormuz.
Iraq’s foreign minister, Fuad Hussein, said Iraq has reached understandings with the United States to export oil through the Strait of Hormuz via a shipping lane near Oman.
Saudi Arabia’s energy ministry said debris from a Houthi-claimed attack on Saudi Aramco’s Riyadh office blew out windows across several floors on Sunday. A fire at Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline was extinguished after a strike, with no casualties and no effect on operations, according to an Energy Ministry source.
By Tuesday, Brent was trading near $91.56 a barrel, close to 10-week lows, after Trump said the war could end fairly soon.
