Crude oil prices edged upwards on Wednesday as the prospect of a truce between the United States and Iran remained clouded. Brent crude traded at $110.15 per barrel, up over 1% from the previous session.
The global benchmark had a rather volatile session on Tuesday as traders assessed progress in peace negotiations between the warring blocs, meanwhile, attacks on tankers in Saudi Arabia intensified.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told American media that reaching a peace deal with Iran is extremely difficult and economic pressure will continue until Tehran stops targeting commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
Whereas, Tehran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi ruled out re-opening the Strait of Hormuz until Washington accepts their conditions. Iran also refused proposals to surrender an estimated 400kg of nuclear material to Russian custody.
The West Texas Intermediate (WTi) settled above $100/barrel mark, at $101.79 per barrel on Tuesday, narrowing its gap from Brent Crude.
Claims that US and Iran are close to an agreement were dismissed as 'inaccurate' on Tuesday. Initial reports claiming the former had knocked Brent off its five-month highs.
Brent has climbed more than 75% this year as widening hostilities in the Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine war restricted supply.
Physical markets have visibly felt the supply pinch with refined products such as petrol and diesel surging even more sharply than crude oil, adding to inflationary pressure and weighing on the global economy.
Last week, the central government raised windfall tax on exports of petrol, and reduced levies on diesel.
The tax on petrol export was hiked to 2.5 rupees ($0.0263) per litre from 0.5 rupees per litre, according to the notification. On the other hand, duty on diesel exports was slashed to 8.5 rupees per litre from 16 rupees per litre, effective October 16, the order said.
Windfall taxes on fuel exports were first imposed in July 2022 by the government, but they were withdrawn two years later. The duties were reintroduced in March 2026 to grapple with surging energy prices as the US-Israeli war on Iran waged on.
At present, the export taxes are reviewed every fortnight and adjusted in line with movements in international crude oil and petroleum product prices.
US Stock Market Recap
Elsewhere, the main US indices largely bucked geo-political weakness and traded higher for much of the session even as tech rout strained the Wall Street.
Accordingly, the S&P 500 closed 0.28% higher at 7,712.57, Dow Jones Industrial Average settled 1.02% higher at 52,495.88, whereas the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite closed around 26,424.82 levels, marginally lower.
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