Crude oil futures traded lower on Thursday morning despite the continued exchange of strikes between the US and Iran in West Asia.At 9.39 am on Thursday, October Brent oil futures were at $87.27, down by 0.93 per cent, and September crude oil futures on WTI (West Texas Intermediate) were at $83.72, down by 0.88 per cent. August crude oil futures were trading at ₹8020 on Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) during the initial hour of trading on Thursday against the previous close of ₹8114, down by 1.16 per cent, and September futures were trading at ₹7827 against the previous close of ₹7898, down by 0.90 per cent.A statement by the US Central Command said its forces successfully completed a heavy wave of strikes against Iran at 10 pm ET on July 29, in response to attempted missile attacks on US forces on July 28.US Central Command assets struck dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targets in Iran, including military command centres, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defence sites, and maritime capabilities. The strikes aimed to further diminish threats posed by Iran and its proxies to American forces, commercial shipping, and neighbouring Gulf countries, it said.On July 28, IRGC forces launched multiple ballistic missiles from Iran in an attempted surprise attack on US forces based in West Asia. All Iranian missiles were successfully intercepted, it said.Meanwhile, weekly petroleum status report by the US EIA (Energy Information Administration) showed a decline in crude oil inventories in the US for the week ending July 24.According to EIA, US commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 7.2 million barrels from the previous week. At 404.5 million barrels, US crude oil inventories were about 6 per cent below the five-year average for this time of year.Total motor gasoline inventories slightly increased from last week and were 7 per cent below the five-year average for this time of year. Distillate fuel inventories increased by 1.1 million barrels last week and were about 10 per cent below the five-year average for this time of year.Total products supplied in the US over the last four-week period averaged 20.3 million barrels per day, down by 2.3 per cent from the same period last year. Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.9 million barrels per day, down by 0.3 per cent from the same period last year. Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.7 million barrels per day over the past four weeks, up by 4.7 per cent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was up 5.8 per cent compared with the same four-week period last year.Published on July 30, 2026