Donna Dong
Research Analyst, Flux
Brent Climbs to $68.40/bbl
Iran-US nuclear talks restart cautiously; EU plans tougher Russia oil sanctions; Mercuria-Tata JV in India; unsold crude tankers linger.
The Apr’26 Brent futures contract has climbed from $66.74/bbl at 14:00 GMT to $68.40/bbl at 17:00 GMT (time of writing).
In the news, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, described the negotiations between Iranian and US officials in Oman as a “good start” that focused solely on nuclear issues, and added that both sides had agreed to continue discussions at a future date. The negotiations, mediated by Omani officials, marked the first talks between the US and Iran since their conflict last June, aimed at preventing another war. Elsewhere, the EU has proposed a new set of sanctions against Russia, which includes a complete ban on maritime services for Russian oil exports. Russia ships more than a third of its oil via Western tankers using Western maritime services, largely involving fleets from EU maritime nations such as Greece, Cyprus, and Malta. In Geneva, trade house Mercuria will establish a joint venture with Tata International to grow its footprint in India and support the conglomerate in trading a diverse range of commodities. In a joint statement, Noel Tata, chairman of Tata International, said that they “believe the joint venture is well-positioned to build a high-quality, scalable, and compliant trading platform.” The venture will become operational following the receipt of regulatory approvals. In other news, tankers carrying up to 12 mb of crude oil are currently en route or near China in East Asian waters, waiting for buyers as India reduces its purchases. Five of these tankers signal ‘for orders’ or ‘China for orders’ as their status, as per Kpler, meaning that these cargoes do not have a destination point or a buyer. Finally, at the time of writing, the front-month (Apr/May’26) and 6-month (Apr/Oct’26) Brent futures spreads are at $1.38bbl and $2.55/bbl, respectively.
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