Oil prices fell about 1% on Thursday, the third consecutive day, after Qatar said Iran and the US had made progress in indirect talks in Doha focused on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil supplies passed before the war, writes UNN citing Reuters.
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The discussions brought "positive progress" on issues related to the memorandum that halted the war in June, a Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in a post on X.
However, there were no signs that the two sides had moved toward a lasting peace.
Brent crude futures lost 77 cents, or 1.1%, to $70.80 a barrel by 02:56 GMT (05:56 Kyiv time), while US West Texas Intermediate crude fell 84 cents, or 1.2%, to $67.74 a barrel.
Both benchmarks also fell more than 1% in the previous session, hitting their lowest levels in four months.
Against the backdrop of the strait remaining open and oil flows increasing, expectations of a supply surplus are growing, and competition for market share is lowering prices, Haitong Futures said in a note.
Sources said OPEC+ oil-producing countries are likely to agree on further increases in production targets from August at a meeting on Sunday.
On Thursday, UBS lowered its Brent forecasts, citing the US-Iran memorandum of understanding and a further increase in oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.
It cut its average Brent price forecast for the September quarter by $25 and for the December quarter by $10. The bank now expects oil to average $80 a barrel in the second half of the year and $75 in 2027.
"Despite this, we believe it is premature to assume full normalization and see the price risk skewed to the upside, given that the number of tankers arriving in the Persian Gulf lags behind the number of tankers departing from there," UBS said.
The next meeting of Iranian and US negotiators will take place after the mourning procession for the death of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on July 9, the Qatari Foreign Ministry also said.
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