Oil struggles for direction as US-Iran talks stall, Hormuz shipping slows

Oil prices gave back early gains on Monday, Business Recorder reported, as stalled US-Iran negotiations raised fresh worries about drawn-out tensions in the Middle East. Brent futures climbed as high as 1% to $89.40 a barrel before slipping to $89.28 by 0620 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate fell 67 cents to $81.74 a barrel.

Both benchmarks rose more than 5% last week after tankers run by ADNOC came under attack in Hormuz and a Saudi Aramco refinery was hit. Priyanka Sachdeva of Phillip Nova in Singapore said prices had nearly fully recovered from early August lows as hopes for a lasting settlement faded. Traffic through the strait weakened over the weekend, with five commodity vessels passing on Saturday and none on Sunday, compared with 31 the previous weekend, according to Kpler ship-tracking data.

Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said over the weekend that his government had yet to settle on reopening talks with the United States, while President Donald Trump asked the public to tolerate a modest rise in petrol prices while the conflict goes on. The UAE blamed Iran for an attack on a third ADNOC ship on Friday, according to state news agency WAM, having earlier linked Iran to two other incidents involving ADNOC vessels on Thursday evening.