Oil Prices Have Fallen To Levels Seen Before The Start Of The War In The Middle East
- 24.06.2026, 19:47
Russian oil prices are falling along with benchmark grades.
The increasing volume of shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz allowed the oil market to give back all the gains it had made since the start of the war in the Middle East. The price of Brent fell to $73.22 per barrel during Wednesday’s trading, its lowest level since February. On Friday, February 27, on the eve of the Israeli and U.S. airstrikes on Iran, Brent closed at $72.48 per barrel, and on Monday, March 2, it soared above $77.
The price of U.S. WTI crude fell below $70 per barrel, its lowest level since March 4. From the peaks reached in March and April, prices have fallen by about 40% due to the end of the war and a gradual increase in crude oil exports from the Middle East. On Wednesday, the United Nations International Maritime Organization announced that, in cooperation with Oman, Iran, the United States, and representatives of the shipping industry, it had established two routes that should allow more than 1,000 stranded vessels to leave the Persian Gulf.
Russian oil is falling in price along with benchmark grades. Furthermore, given the normalization of the situation on the global market and the increase in Iranian crude exports, the discount on Russian oil is widening again. By the start of the war in the Middle East, it had exceeded $30 per barrel, and then the price skyrocketed; for a time, Russian crude was even sold at a premium. But now U.S. sanctions have come back into effect—the U.S. did not renew the license to purchase oil from Russia, which expired on June 17.
In recent weeks, the UAE alone has exported about 60 million barrels. As noted by the International Energy Agency, the country’s exports have already reached nearly 85% of pre-war levels. In early June, it was shipping about 4.3 million barrels per day to foreign markets, compared to 1.9 million in March. Tankers leaving the Persian Gulf have supplemented the volumes that the UAE exports from the port of Fujairah, where oil is delivered via pipeline and from a nearby storage facility with a capacity of 42 million barrels.