{"id":26221,"date":"2026-08-04T18:18:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T13:18:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/?p=26221"},"modified":"2026-08-04T18:18:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T13:18:54","slug":"oil-prices-drop-4-after-qatar-bessent-raise-hopes-of-a-us-iran-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/?p=26221","title":{"rendered":"Oil prices drop 4% after Qatar, Bessent raise hopes of a US-Iran deal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Oil prices fell by around 4% on Tuesday to a three-week low after comments by Qatar and \u200cU.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent raised hopes for a diplomatic resolution to the Middle East conflict, which would improve oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Front-month Brent futures fell $3.11, or 3.71%, to $80.66 a barrel by 1159 GMT after hitting a session high of $86.33.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was down $3.58, or \u200b4.46%, at $76.76 a barrel after touching a session high of $82.33.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both contracts fell to their lowest levels since July 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier in \u200bthe session, both benchmarks had risen more than 2% on uncertainty over prospects for a U.S.-Iran agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOil \u2060prices are pairing earlier gains on comments from Qatari officials saying a potential U.S.-Iran resolution has been drafted,\u201d said Giovanni Staunovo, \u200ba UBS analyst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Qatar Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari said efforts to secure a diplomatic resolution to the conflict were continuing, with mediators including \u200bQatar, Pakistan and Oman coordinating closely to facilitate negotiations and exchange draft proposals between the two sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent said on Tuesday a deal with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz could come as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bessent told CNBC he had seen \u201cquite a few\u201d ships exiting the Strait \u200bof Hormuz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile production in the Middle East has recovered from the lows, it remains below pre-conflict levels, keeping the oil market \u200bundersupplied,\u201d Staunovo added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GULF SHIPPING TRAFFIC LITTLE CHANGED<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hormuz dispute is a central sticking point in talks. Before the conflict began in late February, the Strait \u200cof \u2060Hormuz handled about one-fifth of global daily oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oil prices rose earlier in the day after incidents in the strait and after a senior Iranian source told Reuters on Tuesday that Iran wants control over inbound shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and visibility over outbound traffic, with the ability to intervene if necessary, under a plan being discussed with Oman to reopen the strategic \u200bwaterway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGulf exports remained under pressure, with \u200bStrait of Hormuz transits only \u2060marginally improving from extremely depressed levels. The export disruption story is intact, with Iranian attacks on vessels constraining flows,\u201d ANZ analysts said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shipping traffic at the key Gulf waterways of Bab el-Mandeb and the \u200bStrait of Hormuz held largely unchanged at the start of the week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hormuz remains dangerous for vessels. On \u200bTuesday, the UK \u2060Maritime Trade Operations agency flagged an incident 20 nautical miles (37 km) northeast of Oman\u2019s Al Khasab, after a cargo vessel broadcast that it had been hit by an unknown projectile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Red Sea, six Saudi-flagged supertankers changed course in the Gulf of Aden recently for southern Africa, while two \u2060tankers laden \u200bwith Saudi oil crossed the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, shipping data showed on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goldman \u200bSachs expects Brent to remain in an $80-$90 a barrel range until there is either confirmation of a new U.S.-Iran agreement or a significant escalation in attacks and \u200btargets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oil prices fell by around 4% on Tuesday to a three-week low after comments by Qatar and \u200cU.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent raised hopes for a diplomatic resolution to the Middle East conflict, which would improve oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz. Front-month Brent futures fell $3.11, or 3.71%, to $80.66 a barrel by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","inline_featured_image":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"no","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_3859443944190656_798604363342440":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[{"account":"facebook_3859443944190656_798604363342440","service":"facebook","timestamp":1785849562,"status":"success"}],"rop_publish_now_status":"done","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26221"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26223,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26221\/revisions\/26223"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}