Oil prices drop as US, allies set to boost supply

Oil prices fell on ​Friday, March 20, 2026, as leading European nations and Japan offered to join efforts to secure safe passage ‌for ships through the Strait of Hormuz and the United States outlined moves to boost oil supply.

Looking to curb soaring oil prices, United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the U.S. may soon remove sanctions from Iranian oil stranded on tankers, ​and said a further release of crude from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve was possible.

Brent ​futures fell 39 cents, or 0.4%, to $108.26 a barrel at 0730 GMT, while U.S. ⁠West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell 87 cents, or 0.9%, to $95.27.

Still, for the week, benchmark Brent was ​on track to rise nearly 5% after Iran hit oil and gas facilities in the Gulf states, ​forcing production to be curtailed.

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WTI, however, was set to fall about 4% in its first weekly decline in five weeks.

A senior market analyst at Phillip Nova, Priyanka Sachdeva, said both benchmarks shed some of their “war premiums” on Friday morning after world leaders started to acknowledge a need for restraint ​and de-escalation.

Sachdeva added that markets will remain ​sensitive to the critical Hormuz chokepoint.

In a joint statement on Thursday, after earlier hesitating, Britain, France, ​Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, ​and Japan expressed “our readiness to ⁠contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait”, through which 20% of the world’s oil and LNG transit.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump said ​he had told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to repeat attacks on ​Iranian energy ⁠infrastructure.

In a boost to U.S. supply, North Dakota’s crude output is expected to rise this month and in following months as operators in the third-largest oil-producing state restart inactive wells and winter restrictions are eased, the state’s ⁠regulator ​told Reuters on Thursday.