Oil prices fell Monday even as diplomatic efforts to end the US-Iran war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz sputtered.
Iran and Oman are discussing a temporary route for commercial shipping, but analysts sounded the alarm over worsening risks for tankers: A Kpler analyst said threats to crude shipping were higher than at any other time during the war, while another analyst said recent Houthi strikes had taken things “back to square one.”
A Hapag-Lloyd spokesperson told the BBC that even a brisk reopening of the strait would leave “three to four months” to restore normal flows, making Monday’s relief “meaningful but provisional,” a BNY analyst wrote, adding that Tehran hasn’t publicly approved Oman’s framework, “leaving markets alert to another reversal.”