The Brent January contract had closed the previous Friday at $117.64, after touching $118 intraday.
Diplomacy reports collide
Axios reported that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu pressed President Donald Trump to resume strikes on Iran right after the 3 November midterm elections, but that Trump favours continued diplomacy instead. The Wall Street Journal, citing US officials, reported that Vice President JD Vance sent a letter to Iranian official Muhsin Rizai, at Trump’s instruction, to try to restart peace talks.
Trump denied this account, saying Vance had only helped secure medical supplies for Iran. Fars News Agency, citing an Iranian security source, said Tehran did not respond to the letter. Trump told reporters over the weekend that talks with Iran were going well and that he was in no great hurry to restart strikes.
OPEC+ holds output steady
Ahmed Behşayeş Erdestani, a member of the Iranian Parliament National Security Committee, said direct negotiations between the United States and Iran could take place in Qatar or Turkey. He said negotiation was the only solution under current conditions and that wars should end through talks, not fighting.
Oil’s decline was tempered by an OPEC+ decision, taken the day before, under which seven member countries agreed to keep September production levels unchanged through December. Oman’s crude output target under the agreement stands at 841,000 barrels per day. The group’s next meeting is set for 29 November.
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Traders cited a technical resistance level for Brent at $111.96 a barrel, with support seen at $109.01.
Related: Oil slips $1 a barrel as US-Iran talk hopes ease supply fears · Oil slips as hopes grow for ending Iran war; Brent at $115.15
Source: OPEC
