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Iran Team Heads to Oman as US Reports Progress on Hormuz, Nuclear Talks

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Iran's negotiating team traveled to Oman on Monday as US Vice President J D Vance reported progress on Strait of Hormuz security, regional ceasefire efforts and talks over Iran's nuclear program.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf posted on Telegram that he had departed Tehran for Muscat, where he is scheduled to meet Oman's Sultan Haitham bin Tariq to discuss bilateral cooperation and coordination on the joint management of the Strait of Hormuz.

Iranian Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araghchi joined Ghalibaf on the visit, which comes as regional negotiations continue over shipping security and broader geopolitical issues.

Meanwhile, US Vice President J D Vance delivered remarks in Switzerland, highlighting progress in negotiations involving the Strait of Hormuz, regional security and Iran's nuclear program.

"We made a lot of good progress. We did exactly what we wanted to do," Vance said, highlighting advances made during the latest round of negotiations.

"First, we wanted to build a mechanism for keeping the Strait of Hormuz open. It is open," Vance said, adding, "We also wanted to make sure that we actually set up the coordination mechanism so that we could de-mine the Straits of Hormuz."

Vance said Iran had also agreed to allow International Atomic Energy Agency inspections, signaling "great progress" on nuclear negotiations.

"We also wanted to build a mechanism, a similar mechanism, for de-confliction for the regional ceasefire," Vance said, adding that negotiators established coordination channels to help prevent future incidents from escalating into broader regional conflicts.

Vance said this had led to a "very good foundation for a successful final deal," while noting that negotiators still have significant work ahead before reaching a final agreement.

"Our teams working with the Iranians, the Qataris, and the Pakistanis made great progress yesterday," Vance said, adding that technical negotiations will continue over the coming days and weeks under political oversight.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump, in a Truth Social post on Monday, also said that Iran has agreed to ensure "nuclear honesty" going forward.

"Everybody is fully aware that Iran will agree to have major weapons inspections in order to ensure 'nuclear honesty' long into the future," Trump posted.

Separately, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, said governments are reviewing energy strategies, policies, partnerships, and technology choices, and he expects the current crisis will give an additional boost to electrification efforts at an event hosted by the Octopus Energy Tech Summit during London Climate Action Week.

Oil prices eased Monday as investors assessed progress in talks involving Iran and the Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude fell 3.43% to $77.81 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate crude dropped 2.44% to $74.73/bbl.

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Weekly Crude Prices Plunge to 3-Month Low as US-Iran Deal Reopens Strait of Hormuz

Crude prices declined below $80 per barrel to a three-month low this week after an interim US-Iran peace deal dismantled the Persian Gulf blockade, clearing the way for million barrels of stranded oil to return to a market already facing weak demand forecasts.West Texas Intermediate settled at $77.54/bbl from $84.29/bbl the previous week, while Brent closed at $80.38/bbl from $86.85/bbl a week earlier.Brent crude futures fell for their second straight week following the peace deal, losing about 8% so far this week, while West Texas Intermediate futures shed about 10%.Both contracts fell to their lowest levels since early March.The selloff was triggered by a 60-day memorandum of understanding signed by the US and Iran.On Thursday, the US Central Command officially lifted its maritime blockade, allowing commercial tankers to safely resume transit through the vital Strait of Hormuz.Several media outlets confirmed that idling Saudi Arabian supertankers and previously dark vessels had begun moving, citing shipping data.Kpler estimated that the reopening will unlock a massive backlog of oil, including 90 million barrels of stranded non-Iranian crude and roughly 70 million barrels of Iranian oil.While analysts caution that production ramp-ups and lingering mine-clearing security assessments could take up to six months to fully normalize, the immediate release of floating storage represents an enormous near-term increase in available supply.On the supply side, the US Energy Information Administration showed commercial crude inventories drew down sharply by 8.3 million barrels.Adding long-term pressure, the International Energy Agency slashed its 2026 demand outlook by 1.1 million barrels per day, citing severe economic slowdowns in China and OECD nations.The IEA warned of a massive supply overhang by 2027, projecting global supply to surge by 8 million b/d, while demand increases by a modest 2 million b/d.This stands in stark opposition to OPEC's bullish forecast, which expects oil demand to steadily expand to 113.3 million b/d by 2030.However, analysts expect a decline in prices. "Oil prices are unlikely to fall much further in the near term, even as they 'grind lower' over time," Goldman Sachs analysts noted.Meanwhile, the US oil rig count remained unchanged at 433 in the week ending June 18, according to data from Baker Hughes (BKR) released Thursday. That compares with 438 oil rigs in operation a year earlier.The consolidated North American oil and gas rig count, a key early indicator of future production levels, rose by seven to 749 from 742 the previous week.

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