Oil Slides as Iran Says Hormuz Is Open, Risk Premium Unwinds
Oil prices settled sharply lower on Friday after Iran said commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz would be open for the remainder of the ceasefire period, and U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran has agreed never to close the chokepoint again. The move triggered a rapid unwind of the geopolitical risk premium that had built up over the past two weeks.
Brent crude futures fell $9.01, or 9.07%, to settle at $90.38 a barrel after hitting a session low of $86.09. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) slid $10.48, or 11.45%, to settle at $83.85 a barrel after touching $80.56. Both benchmarks recorded their largest daily declines since April 8.
A senior Iranian official told Reuters that all ships can sail through the Strait of Hormuz, but passage must be coordinated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) naval forces, adding that unfreezing Iranian funds was part of the deal. Ship-tracking data showed around 20 vessels moving from the Gulf toward the exit via Hormuz, signaling early signs of traffic normalization.
“With the market now rapidly unwinding the extreme risk premium built over the past two weeks, crude is shifting back toward pricing actual flow normalization rather than disruption risk,” Gelber & Associates analysts said in a note. An Axios reporter also said on X that the U.S. and Iran have made progress on a three-page memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the war.
Trump told Reuters in a phone interview that the U.S. would enter Iran at a “leisurely pace” to recover enriched uranium and bring it back to the United States. Prices had already been under pressure earlier in the session on expectations of further U.S.–Iran talks over the weekend and after a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon boosted hopes the broader Middle East conflict could be nearing an end. Trump also said Tehran had offered to forgo nuclear weapons for more than 20 years, addressing a key sticking point in the negotiations.
Source : Newsmaker.id
