As oil prices continued to retreat, international benchmark Brent crude briefly touched levels below $74 a barrel on Wednesday afternoon, having traded below $75 since midday for the first time since the Iran war began on 28 February.
Investor confidence has been boosted by increasing tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and progress in the US-Iran peace talks. However, disagreements over nuclear inspections and sanctions remain unresolved, raising questions about how durable the agreement will be.
Meanwhile, shipping through the Strait of Hormuz is gradually recovering after months of disruption, although traffic remains below pre-war levels, analysts said.
Before the conflict, the Strait of Hormuz handled about 125 to 140 vessel crossings per day, including roughly 20 million barrels of oil and petroleum products daily, equivalent to around a quarter of global seaborne oil trade.
Reflecting the recovery in Gulf energy flows, the International Energy Agency said UAE oil exports had rebounded to nearly 85% of pre-war levels in early June, reaching about 4.3 million barrels per day, up from 1.9 million barrels per day in March.
