Overview
- Washington and Tehran said negotiations will take place in Muscat on Friday after a reported dispute over format and location briefly raised doubts about the meeting.
- WTI hovered near $62 and Brent near $68 in Asia trading, extending Thursday’s slide and setting up the first weekly drop in weeks after an earlier 3% jump on talk-of-collapse headlines.
- Iran seeks to limit discussions to its nuclear program, whereas the U.S. wants the agenda to also cover ballistic missiles, regional proxies and human rights.
- The U.S. military reported shooting down an Iranian drone near the USS Abraham Lincoln and said Iranian gunboats tried to board a U.S.-linked merchant vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, which carries about one-fifth of global oil flows.
- U.S. inventory draws provided some support, but a stronger dollar and expectations of improving supply—including Kazakhstan’s output recovery and OPEC+ holding a Q1 pause—kept pressure on prices, with analysts flagging continued volatility.