Oil prices steady post first decline this week on US-Iran peace talk optimism

Oil prices were steady post its first decline this week.

Brent was trading around $95 a barrel after declining 2.8% in the previous session. Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate was under $93 a barrel.

US President Donald Trump said that talks with Iran were going well, despite Tehran-backed Hezbollah rejecting a US-brokered ceasefire deal between Israel and Lebanon.

WTI has gained more than 6% this week after uncertainty over the progress of the negotiations eroded some of the earlier optimism for a deal that would lead to a resumption of oil flows through the strait — which carries about a fifth of the world’s crude and liquefied natural gas in peacetime. Futures are still down about a fifth since early April — when the US and Tehran agreed to a ceasefire that ended more than five weeks of fighting.

There was no sign of progress in talks between Tehran and Washington, with Israel’s continued military strikes in Lebanon becoming a major sticking point. Asked by reporters Thursday in the Oval Office about Hezbollah’s rejection of the Lebanon ceasefire, Trump said “they didn’t reject me” and claimed “they called us” to discuss a cessation of hostilities.

On Thursday, Trump said in a social media post that he’s “right in the middle of my final negotiations to end the War with the Islamic Republic of Iran.” He didn’t elaborate on the talks, using the post to blast a vote by the Republican-led House of Representatives to halt the war.

With inputs from Bloomberg