Oil prices fell by more than 3% during trading on Thursday, January 15, after US President Donald Trump said that the violence in the crackdown on protests in Iran was abating, easing fears of military action against Tehran and disruption to supplies.
In trading, Brent crude futures fell by about 3.2% to $64.42 a barrel. US crude futures also declined by 3.2%, settling at $60.04 a barrel.
Both benchmark crude oils rose more than 1% at settlement on Wednesday, but gave up most of those gains after comments from Trump eased fears of a possible US attack on Iran.
Trump said on Wednesday that he had been informed that the killing of anti-government protesters in Iran had slowed and that he believed there was no plan to carry out mass executions.
For its part, a US official said yesterday that Washington is withdrawing some personnel from military bases in the Middle East, after a senior Iranian official said that Tehran had warned its neighbors that it would strike the bases.
The American country, if it were to be bombed by the Americans.
Hiroyuki Kikukawa, chief analyst at Nissan Securities Investment Co., told Reuters: Selling pressure prevailed due to expectations that America will not take military action against Iran.
He added: The factors that led to the decline also include larger-than-expected US crude oil inventories.
Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday revealed that crude oil and gasoline inventories in America exceeded analysts' estimates last week.
Oil inventories rose by 3.4 million barrels to 422.4 million barrels in the week ending January 9, compared with analysts' expectations of a 1.7 million barrel decline.
On the demand side, OPEC’s monthly report on Wednesday showed that oil demand is likely to rise in 2027 at a similar pace to this year, and published data indicating a near-perfect balance between supply and demand in 2026, contrary to other forecasts of a supply glut.
