Oil prices fell sharply on news of the possible opening of the Strait of Hormuz and an increase in the number of ships leaving it.

July Brent crude futures fell 5.2% to $105.50 a barrel yesterday after President Trump said the US was in the “final stages” of talks with Iran, fueling speculation that crude supplies through the Strait of Hormuz could resume. On Tuesday, Trump said Iran was “behaving sensibly” and that he “maybe” give them until early next week to reach a peace deal.

We will remind that representatives of the IRGC warned against new strikes on Iran, stating that in the event of repeated attacks, "the promised regional war will go beyond the borders of the region."

Crude oil prices were also affected by reports of an increase in the number of ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Last week, Iran announced that it had agreed to relax rules for Chinese ships.

Shipping monitoring agency Lloyd's List said at least 54 ships passed through the strait last week, almost double the number the week before. Iran said 26 ships had passed through the strait in the past 24 hours. But that's only a fraction of the 140 ships that used to pass through the strait every day before the war.

Yesterday, 2 giant Chinese tankers carrying 4 million barrels of oil and one South Korean very large oil carrier carrying 2 million barrels of Kuwaiti crude oil left the strait, LSEG and Kpler reported.

NATO countries have begun discussing the issue of escorting ships through the Strait of Hormuz if it does not open from July, in order to return some of the crude oil supply to the world market.

According to Vortexa, the volume of crude oil stored on tankers that have been idle for at least 7 days increased by 2.7% to 105.11 million barrels in the week of May 9-15.

The EIA's weekly report on Wednesday was mixed for crude and refined product prices. On the one hand, gasoline inventories fell by 1.5 million barrels, while a 2.16 million barrel draw was expected. Meanwhile, distillate inventories unexpectedly rose by 372,000 barrels, while expectations were for a 1.65 million barrel draw. On the positive side, crude oil inventories fell by 7.86 million barrels, while a 2.5 million barrel draw was expected. And crude oil inventories at Cushing, the delivery point for WTI futures, fell by 1.6 million barrels.