Investing.com– Oil prices fell in Asian trading on Thursday after three consecutive sessions of gains, as U.S. President Donald Trump said renewed attacks on Iran would not last long, and U.S. officials pointed to a rebound in energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz.
As of 02:31 ET (06:31 GMT), expiring in November fell 1.5% to $94.22 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate () crude futures slipped 1.4% to $89.78 per barrel.
Both contracts rose sharply in the last three trading sessions, reaching five-week highs.
Get premium commodity market insights with InvestingPro subscription
The rally had been driven by fears that renewed military confrontation between the United States and Iran could further disrupt oil supplies from the Middle East.
U.S. forces struck Iran’s southern coast on Wednesday while Tehran retaliated against U.S. positions across the region, in the most intense exchange of fire between the two countries since July.
Trump, however, said on Wednesday that the renewed U.S. campaign against Iran would not persist for an extended period, helping to temper some of the market’s immediate supply concerns.
He also said the U.S. had targeted Iranian radar, missile systems and capabilities linked to laying mines around the Strait of Hormuz.
The Strait remains the key focus for oil markets. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said 17 million barrels of crude passed through the waterway on Monday, the highest volume since the conflict sharply reduced flows.
Still, shipping traffic remains volatile. Preliminary Kpler data showed only four commodity vessels transited the strait on Tuesday, compared with a 10-day average of about 13.
The market also received a bullish signal from U.S. inventories. U.S. commercial crude stocks fell by 4.5 million barrels last week, the first decline in five weeks, which defied analysts’ estimate for a small rise.
Product inventories offered a mixed picture. Gasoline stocks fell by 1.2 million barrels, while distillate inventories, including diesel and heating oil, rose by about 800,000 barrels.
Attention is also turning to OPEC+. The group is expected to leave its October oil output policy unchanged at a meeting on Sunday after completing the scheduled unwinding of a 1.65 million-barrel-per-day layer of cuts. OPEC+ had raised September output quotas by 188,000 bpd.