TOKYO — Oil prices fell over $1 during trade on Thursday on expectations of a potential US-Iran nuclear deal, while a surprise build in US crude oil inventories last week heightened investor concerns about oversupply.
Brent crude futures fell $1.49, or 2.3 percent, to $64.60 a barrel. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures slid $1.46, or 2.3 percent, to $61.69.
The both benchmarks lost about 0.8 percent on Wednesday.
Iran is willing to agree to a deal with the US in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions, an Iranian official told NBC News in an interview published on Wednesday.
“Fresh selling was triggered by expectations that a US-Iran nuclear deal would ease recently tightened US sanctions on Iran, potentially loosening the global crude supply-demand balance,” said Yuki Takashima, economist at Nomura Securities.
Saudi Arabia fully supports the US-Iran nuclear talks and hopes for positive results, the kingdom’s foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud said on Wednesday.
