Crude oil futures traded higher on Thursday morning following doubts over the durability of the US-Iran ceasefire. This follows Israeli attacks on Lebanon on Wednesday.
At 9.21 am on Thursday, June Brent oil futures were at $96.66, up by 2.02 per cent, and May crude oil futures on WTI (West Texas Intermediate) were at $97.06, up by 2.91 per cent. April crude oil futures were trading at ₹9,059 on Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) during the initial hour of trading on Thursday against the previous close of ₹8,861, up by 2.23 per cent, and May futures were trading at ₹8,430 against the previous close of ₹8,250, up by 2.18 per cent.
In a post on X, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Foreign Minister of Iran, said: “The Iran-US Ceasefire terms are clear and explicit: the US must choose—ceasefire or continued war via Israel. It cannot have both. The world sees the massacres in Lebanon. The ball is in the US court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments.”
Meanwhile, reports said that the movement of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz had been suspended following the Israeli attacks on Lebanon.
Petroleum status data, which was released by the US EIA (Energy Information Administration) for the week ending April 3, showed an increase in crude oil inventories in the US.
According to EIA, US commercial crude oil inventories increased by 3.1 million barrels for the week ending April 3. At 464.7 million barrels, US crude oil inventories were about 2 per cent above the five-year average for this time of year.
Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 1.6 million barrels from last week, and distillate fuel inventories decreased by 3.1 million barrels last week.
Total products supplied in the US over the last four-week period averaged 20.8 million barrels per day. Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.7 million barrels per day, up by 1.5 per cent from the same period last year.
Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 4 million barrels per day over the past four weeks, up by 4.8 per cent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was down 6.4 per cent compared with the same four-week period last year.