Brent crude futures crashed 7.4% to $74.20 per barrel in Sunday electronic trading, while WTI fell 7.9% to $69.80, as Lloyd's List Intelligence confirmed 22 commercial vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz over the prior 24 hours — the highest daily count since the Iran-Israel hostilities began on April 9. Hormuz tanker insurance premiums collapsed 72% over three days, according to broker Marsh McLennan, as Lloyd's war risk underwriters resumed near-normal coverage.
The slide marks the largest single-session decline in Brent since November 2022 and erases the entire $24 per barrel risk premium accumulated since early April. At Sunday's settlement, oil sits roughly $5 below the trailing 200-day moving average and has retraced 71% of the prior six-week rally.
Saudi Arabia Signals Production Adjustment
Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman convened an unscheduled video call with OPEC+ counterparts Sunday afternoon, sources told Reuters. The cartel is weighing pulling forward by two months a planned 411,000 barrel per day production increase originally scheduled for July, in an effort to cap any further price slide and stabilise the market near $75. The next formal OPEC+ meeting is set for May 5.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak echoed the sentiment, telling Tass that Moscow "supports a measured response to ensure orderly markets." Russia has been producing roughly 9.0 million barrels per day, near the bottom of its OPEC+ quota range.
Energy Stocks Brace for Pressure
Exxon Mobil (XOM) and Chevron (CVX) traded 2.4% and 2.1% lower respectively in pre-market, while EOG Resources (EOG) and Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD) shed more than 3%. The S&P 500 Energy sector index, which had outperformed the broader market by 9.4 percentage points since April 9, gave back a portion of those gains in pre-market trade. Refiners including Valero (VLO) and Marathon Petroleum (MPC