
Oil prices drop 2%, head for weekly gains
Oil prices were mixed on Friday, after the White House delayed a decision on potential US intervention in the Iran-Israel conflict. Despite the volatility, the prices are on track for weekly gains.
Brent crude futures for August delivery fell by 2.1%, or $1.65, to $77.20 a barrel at 8:10 AM Makkah time.
Meanwhile, US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures for August—the most actively traded contract—rose 0.65%, or 47 cents, to $73.97 a barrel.
This came after a White House statement saying President Donald Trump would decide within the next two weeks whether the US will intervene in the ongoing Middle East conflict, according to Reuters.
Chinese customs data released today showed fuel oil imports reached 1.30 million tons in May, equivalent to about 267,000 barrels per day—down 29% from April and 40% lower than the same period last year.
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Arab News
33 minutes ago
- Arab News
Water levels plummet at drought-hit Iraqi reservoir
DUKAN: Water levels at Iraq's vast Dukan Dam reservoir have plummeted as a result of dwindling rains and further damming upstream, hitting millions of inhabitants already impacted by drought with stricter water rationing. Amid these conditions, visible cracks have emerged in the retreating shoreline of the artificial lake, which lies in northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region and was created in the 1950s. Dukan Lake has been left three quarters empty, with its director Kochar Jamal Tawfeeq explaining its reserves currently stand at around 1.6 billion cubic meters of water out of a possible seven billion. That is 'about 24 percent' of its capacity, the official said, adding that the level of water in the lake had not been so low in roughly 20 years. Satellite imagery analyzed by AFP shows the lake's surface area shrank by 56 percent between the end of May 2019, the last year it was completely full, and the beginning of June 2025. Tawfeeq blamed climate change and a 'shortage of rainfall' explaining that the timing of the rains had also become irregular. Over the winter season, Tawfeeq said the Dukan region received 220 millimeters (8.7 inches) of rain, compared to a typical 600 millimeters. Upstream damming of the Little Zab River, which flows through Iran and feeds Dukan, was a secondary cause of the falling water levels, Tawfeeq explained. Also buffeted by drought, Iran has built dozens of structures on the river to increase its own water reserves. Baghdad has criticized these kinds of dams, built both by Iran and neighboring Turkiye, accusing them of significantly restricting water flow into Iraq via the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Iraq, and its 46 million inhabitants, have been intensely impacted by the effects of climate change, experiencing rising temperatures, year-on-year droughts and rampant desertification. At the end of May, the country's total water reserves were at their lowest level in 80 years. On the slopes above Dukan lies the village of Sarsian, where Hussein Khader Sheikhah, 57, was planting a summer crop on a hectare of land. The farmer said he hoped a short-term summer crop of the kind typically planted in the area for an autumn harvest — cucumbers, melons, chickpeas, sunflower seeds and beans — would help him offset some of the losses over the winter caused by drought. In winter, in another area near the village, he planted 13 hectares mainly of wheat. 'The harvest failed because of the lack of rain,' he explained, adding that he lost an equivalent of almost $5,700 to the poor yield. 'I can't make up for the loss of 13 hectares with just one hectare near the river,' he added. The water shortage at Dukan has affected around four million people downstream in the neighboring Sulaimaniyah and Kirkuk governorates, including their access to drinking water. For more than a month, water treatment plants in Kirkuk have been trying to mitigate a sudden, 40 percent drop in the supplies reaching them, according to local water resource official Zaki Karim. In a country ravaged by decades of conflict, with crumbling infrastructure and floundering public policies, residents already receive water intermittently. The latest shortages are forcing even 'stricter rationing' and more infrequent water distributions, Karim said. In addition to going door-to-door to raise awareness about water waste, the authorities were also cracking down on illegal access to the water network. In the province of roughly two million inhabitants, the aim is to minimize the impact on the provincial capital of Kirkuk. 'If some treatment plants experience supply difficulties, we will ensure that there are no total interruptions, so everyone can receive their share,' Karim said.


Arab News
an hour ago
- Arab News
Israel military says hit Hezbollah site in south Lebanon
JERUSALEM: Israel's military said Saturday its navy hit a Hezbollah 'infrastructure site' near the southern Lebanese city of Naqoura, a day after Israel's foreign minister warned the Lebanese armed group against entering the Iran-Israel war. 'Overnight, an Israeli Navy vessel struck a Hezbollah 'Radwan Force' terrorist infrastructure site in the area of Naqoura in southern Lebanon,' the military said in a statement. The military said the site was used by Hezbollah 'to advance terror attacks against Israeli civilians.' In a separate statement on Saturday, the military said it had 'struck and eliminated' a Hezbollah militant in south Lebanon the previous day, despite an ongoing ceasefire between both sides. In a statement carried by the official National News Agency, Lebanon's health ministry said late on Friday that one person was killed in a 'strike carried out by an Israeli enemy drone on a motorcycle' in the same south Lebanon village. The November ceasefire aimed to end hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, which sparked months of deadly hostilities by launching cross-border attacks on northern Israel in solidarity with Palestinian ally Hamas following its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. Lebanon's army, which has been dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure as part of the truce, said earlier in June that the Israeli military's ongoing violations and 'refusal to cooperate' with the ceasefire monitoring mechanism 'could prompt the (Lebanese) military to freeze cooperation' on site inspections.


Al Arabiya
an hour ago
- Al Arabiya
Middle East tensions put investors on alert, weighing worst-case scenarios
Investors are mulling a host of different market scenarios should the US deepen its involvement in the Middle East conflict, with the potential for ripple effects if energy prices skyrocket. They have honed in on the evolving situation between Israel and Iran, which have exchanged missile strikes, and are closely monitoring whether the US decides to join Israel in its bombing campaign. Potential scenarios could send inflation higher, dampening consumer confidence and lessening the chance of near-term interest rate cuts. This would likely cause an initial selloff in equities and possible safe-haven bid for the dollar. While US crude prices have climbed some 10 percent over the past week, the S&P 500 has been little changed as of yet, following an initial drop when Israel launched its attacks. However, if attacks were to take out Iranian oil supply, 'that's when the market is going to sit up and take notice,' said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley Wealth. 'If you get disruption to supply of oil product on the global marketplace, that is not reflected in today's WTI price and that is where things get negative,' Hogan said. The White House said on Thursday President Donald Trump would decide on US involvement in the conflict in the next two weeks. Analysts at Oxford Economics modeled three scenarios, ranging from a de-escalation in the conflict, a complete shutdown in Iranian production, and a closure of the Strait of Hormuz, 'each with increasingly large impacts on global oil prices,' the firm said in a note. In the most severe case, global oil prices jump to around $130 per barrel, driving US inflation near 6 percent by the end of this year, Oxford said in the note. 'Although the price shock inevitably dampens consumer spending because of the hit to real incomes, the scale of the rise in inflation and concerns about the potential for second-round inflation effects likely ruin any chance of rate cuts in the US this year,' Oxford said in the note. Oil impact The biggest market impact from the escalating conflict has been restricted to oil, with oil prices soaring on worries that the Iran-Israel conflict could disrupt supplies. Brent crude futures have risen as much as 18 percent since June 10, hitting a near 5-month high of $79.04 on Thursday. The accompanying rise in investors' expectations for further near-term volatility in oil prices has outpaced the rise in volatility expectations for other major asset classes, including stocks and bonds. But other asset classes, including stocks, could still feel the knock-on effects of higher oil prices, especially if there is a larger surge in oil prices if the worst market fears of supply disruptions come true, analysts said. 'Geopolitical tensions have been mostly ignored by equities, but they are being factored into oil,' Citigroup analysts wrote in a note. 'To us, the key for equities from here will come from energy commodity pricing,' they said. Stocks unperturbed US stocks have so far weathered rising Middle East tensions with little sign of panic. A more direct US involvement in the conflict could, however, spook markets, investors said. Financial markets may be in for an initial selloff if the US military attacks Iran, with economists warning that a dramatic rise in oil prices could damage a global economy already strained by Trump's tariffs. Still, any pullback in equities might be fleeting, history suggests. During past prominent instances of Middle East tensions coming to a boil, including the 2003 Iraq invasion and the 2019 attacks on Saudi oil facilities, stocks initially languished but soon recovered to trade higher in the months ahead. On average, the S&P 500 slipped 0.3 percent in the three weeks following the start of conflict, but was 2.3 percent higher on average two months following the conflict, according to data from Wedbush Securities and CapIQ Pro. Dollar woes An escalation in the conflict could have mixed implications for the US dollar, which has tumbled this year amid worries over diminished US exceptionalism. In the event of US direct engagement in the Iran-Israel War, the dollar could initially benefit from a safety bid, analysts said. 'Traders are likely to worry more about the implicit erosion of the terms of trade for Europe, the UK, and Japan, rather than the economic shock to the US, a major oil producer,' Thierry Wizman, Global FX & Rates Strategist at Macquarie Group, said in a note. But longer-term, the prospect of US-directed 'nation-building' would probably weaken the dollar, he said. 'We recall that after the attacks of 9/11, and running through the decade-long US presence in Afghanistan and Iraq, the USD weakened,' Wizman said.