Oil markets traded with limited direction on Wednesday as market participants weighed developments in U.S.-Iran diplomacy alongside impending U.S. inventory data. By 0100 GMT, Brent crude futures were trading at $69.03 a barrel, up 23 cents, or 0.3%. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was at $64.19, also up 23 cents, or 0.4%.
Officials in Tehran said the nuclear discussions with Washington had allowed Iran to assess how serious U.S. intentions were, and that the talks showed sufficient consensus to continue down a diplomatic path. Diplomats from the two countries had met in Oman last week in an effort to revive diplomatic engagement, after U.S. President Donald Trump positioned a naval flotilla in the region - a move that heightened concern about the prospect of military action.
Market reaction to that diplomatic activity was mixed. Prices initially eased following comments by Oman’s foreign minister that discussions linked to U.S.-Iran talks with Iran’s top security official were productive. Later, those hopes for a diplomatic resolution weakened after reports suggested the U.S. might dispatch a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East if negotiations fail - a development flagged in an analysts' note from ANZ as undermining the earlier optimism.
President Trump said on Tuesday he was considering sending a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East even as both sides prepared to resume talks intended to avert a new conflict. That interplay of diplomatic engagement and military posturing left traders cautious, keeping a floor under prices while limiting any strong directional moves.
Attention in the market was also on inventory statistics. Traders awaited weekly U.S. oil stock figures from the Energy Information Administration due on Wednesday. Analysts polled by news organisations expected, on average, that crude inventories rose by about 800,000 barrels in the week to February 6, while distillate stocks were forecast to have fallen by about 1.3 million barrels and gasoline inventories to have declined by roughly 400,000 barrels.
Separately, market sources citing American Petroleum Institute data reported that U.S. crude inventories had increased by 13.4 million barrels in the week ended February 6. The sizeable API-reported build contrasted with the more modest build anticipated by analysts polled ahead of the official government release.
Overall, the market remained driven by geopolitical uncertainty around U.S.-Iran relations and by short-term supply-demand signals from inventory data, leaving oil prices relatively steady but sensitive to new developments on either front.