PERTH, March 27 - Oil benchmarks fell in early trade on Friday and were down for the week after U.S. President Donald Trump said negotiations with Iran to end the war were progressing "very well" and posted that he would delay attacks on Iranian energy plants for 10 days.
As of 0024 GMT, Brent futures were lower by $0.90, or 0.8%, at $107.11 per barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) dropped $0.83, or 0.88%, to $93.65 per barrel, trimming gains recorded in the previous session.
Traders had pushed prices higher on Thursday amid fears of escalation, sending Brent up 5.7% and WTI up 4.6% the prior day. Nevertheless, trading volume for the front-month Brent contract was unusually thin, marking the lowest level since February 27, the day before the United States and Israel began strikes on Iran.
Despite Thursday's rally, Brent was set for its first weekly decline in six weeks, and WTI was headed for a second straight weekly drop, moves attributed in part to comments from the U.S. president about the possibility of ending the conflict.
In a post on Truth Social on Thursday, President Trump said: "As per Iranian Government request ... I am pausing the period of Energy Plant destruction by 10 Days to Monday, April 6, 2026, at 8 P.M., Eastern Time."
An Iranian official told Reuters that a 15-point U.S. proposal, relayed to Tehran by Pakistan, had been examined in detail on Wednesday by senior Iranian officials and the representative of Iran's supreme leader. The official described the plan as "one-side and unfair."
Separately, the U.S. president said Iran had permitted 10 oil tankers to transit the Strait of Hormuz as a goodwill gesture during negotiations, and that the vessels were Pakistan-flagged.
At the same time, the United States has dispatched thousands of troops to the Middle East, and President Trump has been considering whether to employ ground forces to seize Kharg Island, Iran's strategic oil hub.
The conflict has nearly halted shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint that normally carries about a fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas supply. International Energy Agency chief Fatih Birol characterized the crisis as worse than the two oil shocks of the 1970s combined with the effect of the Russia-Ukraine war on gas.
Market assessments point to a significant disruption to global supply. The war on Iran has removed 11 million barrels of oil per day from global supply, the article reported.
Despite that large disruption, market participants - at least for the moment - do not appear to be pricing in an extended shock. Shemara Wikramanayake, chief executive of Macquarie, told the Asia Pacific Financial and Innovation Symposium in Melbourne that "For today, the markets are not assuming a huge impact, particularly in oil. If you look at the forward curve, they're assuming this will end quite fast and things will stabilise quite quickly."
Price moves over the past days illustrate the volatility in energy markets as diplomatic signals, military positioning and shipping disruptions interact. For now, the combination of a U.S. announcement of a pause in attacks and indications of talks has been enough to pare back some of the immediate upside in crude futures, even as fundamental supply losses and strategic uncertainties remain in place.