Crude oil futures were little changed in after-hours trading on Friday as the US imposed fresh sanctions on Iran's financial services industry, even as peace talks between the two countries remained active, sending mixed signals to global crude markets.
Front-month West Texas Intermediate crude futures eased by 0.7% to $71.61 per barrel, while Brent futures settled lower at 0.3% to $76.09/bbl.
Gelber & Associates strategists said WTI crude is trading near $71.83/bbl, down 0.4% on the day but still headed for a weekly gain after renewed US-Iran fighting disrupted shipping via the Strait of Hormuz.
The US issued new sanctions against Iran on Friday after Tehran's resumption of attacks on commercial vessels in the Hormuz.
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control said it imposed sanctions on Iranian financier Ali Ansari and several currency exchange houses, accusing them of helping move billions of dollars through Iran's shadow financial networks.
The OFAC described Ansari as a "key financier" for Iran's Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, saying he had diverted publicly funded wealth into an extensive overseas portfolio of real estate and commercial holdings to enrich himself, government elites, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Meanwhile, Trump said on Friday that the US and Iran have agreed to continue peace talks, even though the ceasefire established by last month's preliminary deal has been scrapped. The US President, in a Truth Social post, said that Tehran "has asked us to continue 'talks'" and that "we have agreed to do so."
Soojin Kim, research analyst at MUFG, said despite the escalation, the US and Iran have stopped short of returning to full-scale conflict, and elements of the interim agreement remain intact, preventing a more severe disruption to regional energy exports.
Though the International Energy Agency and the US Energy Information Administration have recently adjusted their outlooks to account for shifting trade patterns, the market remains hypersensitive to developments in the Middle East.
On the demand side, the IEA said in its Oil Market Report - July 2026 that renewed hostilities between the two adversaries risk derailing efforts to rebuild depleted global oil inventories later in 2026.
The agency said seasonal trends and a rebound in fuel supplies are lifting consumption from May lows, with global oil demand forecast to fall by 1 million barrels per day this year before rising by 2 mmbbl/d in 2027.
Global oil demand is projected to rise by over 8 mmbbl/d by October from the May low of 97.9 mmbbl/d, moving above 2025 levels for the first time since February.
On Friday, the IEA said that renewed hostilities between the two sides risk derailing efforts to rebuild depleted global oil inventories later this year.
Going forward, market participants are closely monitoring Gulf producers' export allocations and the impact of OPEC+'s gradual unwinding of production cuts.