Oil Falls But Caught Between Iran Talks And Ukraine Crisis

Oil prices fell on Thursday as talks to revive a nuclear deal with Iran entered their final stages, but tension between Russia and the West over Ukraine limited losses.

Brent crude fell $1.26, or 1.3 percent, to $93.55 a barrel.

US West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.34 dollars, equivalent to 1.4 dollars, to 92.32 dollars a barrel.

Both benchmarks fell more than 2% earlier in the session.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said the United States is in the final stages of indirect talks with Iran aimed at salvaging the 2015 agreement limiting Tehran’s nuclear activities.

France said on Wednesday that it was only days for a decision on reviving the nuclear deal and that it was now up to Tehran to make the political decision, while Tehran called on Western powers to be realistic.

With a new deal looming, South Korea said it had held talks on resuming Iranian crude imports and unfreezing Iranian assets. South Korea was previously one of the largest buyers of Iranian crude in Asia.

The RIA news agency reported that Russian-backed rebels accused Ukrainian forces of bombing lands they control in violation of agreements aimed at ending the conflict in the disputed Donbass region, which Ukraine denied.

Russia announced earlier this week a partial withdrawal of its forces, which the West countered by referring to Russia’s continued massing of its forces near the borders of Ukraine.