Oil prices little changed on negotiations to manage ship traffic in Strait

Crude prices were little changed Wednesday on reports that the U.S., Iran and Oman were working on an agreement to manage ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, was up 7 cents at $79.43 per barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures traded 50 cents lower to $75.27.

The U.S., Iran and Oman are negotiating an interim deal in which inbound ships would transit Iran’s territorial waters while outbound ships would sail through Oman’s waters in coordination with Tehran, two regional sources told Axios.

President Donald Trump told Fox News late Tuesday that the negotations went all day long. “It looks like things are very good,” Trump said.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC Tuesday morning that a deal to unlock the waterway — a vital transit route for oil, gas, fertilizer and other industrial products — could be reached this week.

Prices briefly moved higher after Iran’s Houthi allies in Yemen said they hit a Saudi tanker with a missile near the coast of Yanbu, a major port for Riyadh’s crude oil exports in the Red Sea.

The U.S and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding on June 17 to open Hormuz, but the deal quickly collapsed as fighting erupted over the route ships take through the strait.

Tehran attacked ships sailing along Oman’s coast under U.S. military protection, in an effort to force vessels to transit its territorial waters. Washington retaliated with more than a dozen waves of airstrikes and the reimposition of its naval blockade against Iran.