Mita Chaturvedi
Research Associate, Flux
Brent Rises to $110.80/bbl
Donald Trump criticizes allies as Iran tensions persist, Hormuz reopening unlikely, energy risks rise, and global demand strains grow.
The May’26 Brent futures moved up from $106.60/bbl at 12:10 GMT this afternoon to initially noting resistance at the $110/bbl handle, but ultimately rose to $110.80/bbl at 17:38 GMT (time of writing).
Iranian officials have reportedly become reluctant to discuss reopening the Strait of Hormuz amid the current US-Israeli attacks, as per Bloomberg. This comes as US President Donald Trump again lashed out at its military allies for not joining the war on Iran, stating that a NATO intervention would be “easy for them to do” and calling the members of the alliance “COWARDS”. QatarEnergy CEO Saad al-Kaabi said to Reuters that he was “always warning, talking to executives from oil and gas that are partnered with us, talking to the US Secretary of Energy, to warn him of that consequence and that that could be detrimental to us," speaking about the dangers of hitting Iranian energy sites on wider infrastructure in the region. On this note, Shell said that a full repair of its train two at the Pearl GTL (gas to liquids) facility in Qatar would take around a year, also stating to Reuters that train one at the facility was not damaged. In other news, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 55% of Americans said their household finances had been at least somewhat hit by the increase in gasoline prices. Of this, 21% said their finances were impacted “a great deal.” In Bangladesh, the government is in talks with major development leaders, including the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, seeking billions in external financing to secure the nation’s fuel and LNG imports. Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, the prime minister's adviser on finance and planning stated that he expected about $1.3 billion from the IMF under an existing programme along with an added $250-500 million on top of an existing $500 million in budgetary support from the ADB. In India, state-owned Hindustan Petroleum has bought 1mb of Angola’s Clov and Cabinda from Exxon at about a $15 premium to Dated Brent on a delivered basis for May 1-10 arrival in India's west coast, as per Reuters. Finally, at the time of writing, the May/Jun’26 and May/Nov’26 Brent futures contracts stand at $5.06/bbl and $23.65/bbl, respectively.
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