Satellite view of the Salalah oil storage fire in Oman. An Iranian drone strike on March 11 ignited the blaze, sending a plume over the Gulf of Oman’s strategic port amid the wider conflict with Iran. Imaged March 13, 2026.
Gallo Images | Orbital Horizon | Copernicus Sentinel Data 2026 | Getty Images
Oil prices rose Tuesday as optimism fades that the U.S. and Iran will reach a deal to end their standoff and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
International benchmark Brent crude futures for July gained 3.6% to $107.98 a barrel as of 11:16 a.m. ET. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures for June rose 3.8% to $101.79 per barrel.
Brent crude prices
President Donald Trump has rejected Iran’s counteroffer to a U.S. proposal to end the conflict. Trump on Monday dismissed Tehran’s offer as “garbage” and warned that the ceasefire is on “life support.”
“We’re in a stalemate, a frozen conflict,” Amos Hochstein, who served as a senior advisor to former President Joe Biden, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
“In the meantime, the straits are closed so we’re in a no war, no oil, no straits condition,” Hochstein said. A breakthrough is unlikely this week as Trump heads to China to meet with President Xi Jinping, he said.
Since the U.S. and Israeli-led war against Iran started on Feb. 28, WTI and Brent are both up more than 40%. “Oil prices have been volatile and can rise further if US-Iran dealmaking remains thorny,” Citi said in a note.
Re-escalation in the Iran war is certainly possible, Henry Wilkinson, geopolitical and security intelligence service firm Dragonfly’s chief intelligence officer, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Tuesday, adding that Trump may ask Chinese President Xi Jinping to press Iran to accept U.S. terms later this week during talks between China and the U.S.
The oil market will take until 2027 to normalize if the Strait of Hormuz stays blocked beyond mid-June, Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser warned Monday.
“If the Strait of Hormuz opens today, it will still take months for the market to rebalance, and if its opening is delayed by a few more weeks, then normalization will last into 2027,” Nasser, who heads the world’s largest oil company, told investors on the company’s first-quarter earnings call.
— CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger and Spencer Kimball contributed to this report.
