Mita Chaturvedi
Research Associate, Flux
Brent eases to low $96 handles
The front-month (Jun'26) Brent futures contract continues to face firm resistance at $100/bbl, as seen at 18:00 BST yesterday.....
Published: April 17, 2026
Written by:
Mita Chaturvedi
4 page report
The front-month (Jun'26) Brent futures contract continues to face firm resistance at $100/bbl, as seen at 18:00 BST yesterday, when prices hit $99.83/bbl before easing to $98/bbl by 22:00 BST. Prices initially held at this level but have since eased to $96.10/bbl at 11:27 BST (time of writing), seeing support below $96/bbl....
Fatih Birol, head of the IEA, was quoted as saying that it would take two years to recover the energy output lost in the Middle East due to the ongoing conflict in the Persian Gulf, in an interview with the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung. He also stressed that the market was underestimating the consequences of a prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump remains confident that an agreement could be reached soon to end the war, hinting that talks could resume as early as this weekend, and that the Iran-backed Hezbollah should support a 10-day US-backed truce agreed between Lebanon and Israel. Key Pakistani mediator in the talks, army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, has been in Tehran since Wednesday and is working on breakthroughs on Tehran's nuclear ambitions, a key bottleneck in the current negotiations, and may visit Washington, D.C. in the near term. Previous talks saw the US proposing a 20-year suspension of all Iranian nuclear activity, while Iran has countered with a proposed halt of 3-5 years. According to Wang Changlin, vice chair of China's state economic planner, China will continue to diversify its energy imports and boost energy reserves to enhance capabilities to cope with an "emergency situation". The IMF has said that European governments should not excessively shield businesses and consumers from higher energy prices, as this distorts price signals to cut consumption and could prove very costly fiscally. Finally, at the time of writing, the Jun/Jul'26 and Jun/Dec'26 Brent futures spreads stand at $5.38/bbl and $14.74/bbl, respectively.
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