Oil prices edged higher in Asian trading Tuesday as conflicting accounts from Washington and Tehran over the status of nuclear inspections kept traders on edge.
Front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures rose 0.5% to $74.21 a barrel, while front-month Brent crude futures advanced 0.3% to $78.13 a barrel, according to ICE data.
Vice President JD Vance said Monday that Iran had agreed to allow nuclear inspectors to return to the country as early as this week. However, Tehran did not acknowledge the Trump administration’s move to give inspectors broader access to its sites, and Iran later denied Vance’s assertion.
“Vance described the first round of negotiations as ‘very, very good’ and said Iran had agreed to allow nuclear inspectors back into the country,” Carol Kong, economist and currency strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said in a research report. But “Iran later said that Vance’s assertion was ‘false and does not reflect reality,’” Kong noted.
Crude prices also strengthened amid worries over the sustainability of a recent surge in oil tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil is typically transported.
“There are concerns that the surge may not be sustained,” ANZ Research analysts said in a research report. The analysts noted that Iran has said any crossing of the strait would require mandatory insurance policies, which are currently free but could eventually be charged.
Equity markets across Asia were mixed. Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average declined 0.5%, and South Korea’s Kospi fell 2.5%. Taiwan’s benchmark Taiex rose 0.2%, and Singapore’s FTSE Straits Times Index added 0.4%.