{"id":21211,"date":"2026-05-08T10:28:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T06:58:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/?p=21211"},"modified":"2026-05-08T10:28:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T06:58:52","slug":"oil-prices-rise-as-investors-weigh-middle-east-peace-prospects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/?p=21211&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Oil prices rise as investors weigh Middle East peace prospects"},"content":{"rendered":"

TOKYO:<\/strong> Oil prices surged by over $1 on Thursday, recovering from significant losses the previous day, as investors carefully considered the likelihood of a successful Middle East peace agreement.<\/p>\n

Brent crude futures saw an increase of 78 cents, or 0.8 percent, reaching $102.05 a barrel by 07:00 a.m. Saudi time. Meanwhile, US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) gained 76 cents, or 0.8 percent, to trade at $95.84 a barrel.<\/p>\n

Both benchmarks had experienced a sharp decline of more than 7 percent on Wednesday, hitting two-week lows amidst optimism surrounding a potential resolution to the Middle East conflict. However, these losses were pared after US President Donald Trump stated it was “too soon” for direct talks with Tehran, and a senior Iranian lawmaker dismissed the US proposal as more of a “wish list” than a practical reality.<\/p>\n

“While peace negotiations are likely to continue at least until next week’s US-China summit, the outlook beyond that remains uncertain,” commented Hiroyuki Kikukawa, chief strategist at Nissan Securities Investment, a division of Nissan Securities.<\/p>\n

President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are slated to meet next week.<\/p>\n

“The primary scenario suggests that oil prices will remain elevated,” Kikukawa added.<\/p>\n

Iran announced on Wednesday that it was reviewing a US peace proposal. Sources indicated this proposal aimed to formally conclude the war, though it left unresolved key US demands for Iran to suspend its nuclear program and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

An Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, quoted by Iran’s ISNA news agency, confirmed that Tehran would communicate its response. Trump expressed his belief that Iran desired an agreement.<\/p>\n

A Pakistani mediation source and another individual briefed on the discussions revealed that an agreement was close on a one-page memorandum designed to formally end the conflict.<\/p>\n

US media outlet Axios reported, citing sources, that the US anticipates Iranian responses on several crucial points within the next 48 hours, noting that this marks the closest the parties have come to an agreement since the war began.<\/p>\n

“From a broader perspective, oil markets have been caught between diplomacy and disruption for over two months, with investor sentiment frequently swayed by daily headlines,” observed Priyanka Sachdeva, senior market analyst at Phillip Nova.<\/p>\n

“Should a formal deal eventually materialize, oil prices could experience a significant drop as geopolitical premiums quickly dissipate from the market. Conversely, any new indications of attacks on oil infrastructure or an escalation in the Middle East could easily trigger another sharp surge in crude prices.”<\/p>\n

Even if a peace deal is achieved, oil supplies are expected to tighten further in the coming weeks. This is because it will take several weeks for oil shipments to resume from the Middle East Gulf and reach refineries worldwide, compelling oil companies to continue drawing down storage tanks to meet peak summer demand.<\/p>\n

US crude and fuel inventories continued their decline last week as nations sought to compensate for supply disruptions caused by the Iran crisis, the Energy Information Administration reported on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Crude stocks fell by 2.3 million barrels to 457.2 million barrels last week, whereas analysts in a Reuters poll had anticipated a larger draw of 3.3 million barrels.<\/p>\n

#OilPrices #MiddleEastPeace #CrudeOil #BrentCrude #WTI #Geopolitics #IranCrisis #EnergyMarket #OilSupply #Diplomacy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TOKYO: Oil prices surged by over $1 on Thursday, recovering from significant losses the previous day, as investors carefully considered the likelihood of a successful Middle East peace agreement. Brent crude futures saw an increase of 78 cents, or 0.8 percent, reaching $102.05 a barrel by 07:00 a.m. Saudi time. Meanwhile, US West Texas Intermediate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}