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Oil costs fell greater than $2 per barrel on Wednesday (March 18, 2026) to pare a few of Tuesday’s (March 17, 2026) sharp positive factors after the Iraqi authorities and Kurdish authorities reached a deal to renew oil exports through Turkiye’s Ceyhan port, offering modest reduction to issues about provides from West Asia.
However with no indicators of a de-escalation of the Iran battle, which has left oil exports from West Asia largely halted, Brent futures costs have settled above $100 per barrel for the prior 4 consecutive periods. After rising greater than 3% on Tuesday, Brent futures retreated $2.26, or 2.19%, to $101.16 a barrel by 0429 GMT on Wednesday. The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude dropped $2.99, or 3.11%, to $93.22.
Iraq’s Oil Minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani mentioned oil flows from Ceyhan have been anticipated to start out at 07.00 GMT on Wednesday, in keeping with state media. Two oil officers mentioned final week that Iraq was looking for to pump at the least 1,00,000 barrels per day of crude by the port.
“The information offered some reduction to the market. Any extra quantity discovering its method again to the market is effective beneath the present scenario, so costs moved all the way down to replicate that,” mentioned LSEG senior analyst Anh Pham.
“However we’re nonetheless in a $100 per barrel oil atmosphere, and the disaster across the Strait of Hormuz exhibits no signal of stopping but,” Anh Pham mentioned.
“Oil manufacturing from Iraq’s most important southern oilfields, the place most of its crude is produced and exported, has plunged 70% to simply 1.3 million bpd,” sources mentioned on March 8, because the Iran battle successfully shut the important Strait of Hormuz by which some 20% of world oil passes.
Iran confirmed on Tuesday that its safety chief Ali Larijani had been killed in an Israeli assault. He’s probably the most senior determine focused since Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed on the primary day of the U.S.-Israeli conflict on the finish of February 2026.
A senior Iranian official mentioned Iran’s new supreme chief had rejected de-escalation presents conveyed by middleman nations. The U.S. army mentioned on Tuesday it had focused websites alongside Iran’s shoreline close to the Strait of Hormuz as a result of Iranian anti-ship missiles posed a danger to worldwide delivery there.
“Larijani’s loss of life and the U.S. army’s strikes on Iranian coastal positions close to the Strait of Hormuz raised some hopes that the battle may finish sooner,” mentioned Mingyu Gao, chief researcher for vitality and chemical substances at China Futures.
“U.S. crude shares rose by 6.56 million barrels within the week ended March 13,” market sources mentioned, citing American Petroleum Institute (API) figures on Tuesday. A Reuters ballot confirmed that U.S. crude oil stockpiles have been anticipated to have risen by about 3,80,000 barrels within the week to March 13.
Revealed – March 18, 2026 11:23 am IST