Oil falls over 1% on reports of potential US-Iran ceasefire deal

Published 29 May, 2026 11:00am 2 min read

Oil futures fell more than 1% on Friday and were on track for their steepest weekly decline since early April, following ​reports that the US and Iran had agreed to extend a ceasefire, ‌though it had yet to be finalised.

Brent crude futures for July fell 1.1% or $1.04 to $92.67 a barrel at 0330 GMT.

US oil futures fell $1.26, or 1.4%, to $87.64 a barrel.

Brent plunged 10.5% ​this week — the steepest plunge since the week that ended on April ​6, while WTI fell 9.2% — the biggest weekly loss since the ⁠week that ended on April 13.

The US and Iran reached an agreement on Thursday to ​extend a ceasefire and lift restrictions on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, sources ​told Reuters, though US President Donald Trump has yet to approve it, and Iranian state media said it had not been finalised.

“Consensus remains that the conflict is over, and a deal is coming. ​As long as this narrative holds, crude oil has room to extend its decline ​toward trendline support in the low $80s,” IG analyst Tony Sycamore said.

Prices have been volatile in recent ‌sessions, ⁠swinging by as much as $6 for both benchmarks on conflicting signals over a possible end to the three-month US-Israeli war on Iran and the potential reopening of the Strait of Hormuz — a key conduit for roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and ​liquefied natural gas supplies.

Traffic ​through the maritime ⁠chokepoint remains a small fraction of the pre-war level.

Analysts at ING said a reopening of the strait would offer some immediate ​relief to the oil market, but a recovery is still uncertain.

“Upstream ​oil production ⁠has fallen significantly since the war, with producers shutting in production in order to manage storage constraints,” ING said in a note.

“The recovery in upstream production will be gradual ⁠rather ​than immediate.”

“Refineries in the region need to ramp up ​output. This will take time, given that some of this infrastructure was targeted in attacks earlier in the ​conflict.”

Read Comments