Oil prices fall amid increased supply from the Persian Gulf — Channel NewsAsia

Oil prices fell on September 23 amid Saudi Arabia’s resumption of oil supplies via a pipeline to the Red Sea and expectations of talks between the United States and Iran in New York. As Channel NewsAsia reports, Brent futures as of 01:19 GMT were down 7 cents, or 0.07%, at $99.18 per barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell by 35 cents, or 0.39%, to $90.17 per barrel.

Pipeline resumption

On Tuesday, September 22, Saudi Arabia resumed operations of the East-West Pipeline to the Red Sea, three informed sources said. This was accompanied by signs of increased oil flows from the Middle East.

The pipeline was shut down on September 11 after drone attacks, for which Saudi Arabia blamed Iraqi armed groups. As a result, oil shipments from the port of Yanbu stopped. After the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran disrupted oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, Riyadh used this route to redirect approximately 4 million barrels per day to Yanbu. This accounts for about 4% of global oil supplies.

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Talks and U.S. inventories

U.S. President Donald Trump said on September 22 that his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner had held productive talks with Iranian intermediaries on ending the war. He also said that he saw significant progress toward reaching an agreement. KCM Trade analyst Tim Waterer noted that the meeting of U.S. and Iranian delegations in New York gave traders hope for the possibility of negotiations.

An additional factor putting pressure on prices was industry data showing that U.S. oil inventories rose by 1.8 million barrels in the week to September 18, although analysts surveyed by Reuters had expected a decline. Iraq is also increasing exports: according to Oil Minister Basim Mohammed, the country supplies more than 3 million barrels per day and expects to increase exports through Turkey to more than 600,000 barrels per day.