Brent settled at $115.81 as Monday’s oil rally faded

Brent crude futures finished Monday down 91 cents, or 0.8%, at $115.81 a barrel, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate finished down $1.51, or 1.46%, at $101.76, Reuters reported. CNBC’s oil report gave the same two settlements: Brent lost 91 cents to close at $115.81, and West Texas Intermediate fell $1.51 to settle at $101.76. CNBC said Brent briefly topped $117 earlier in the session, and that prices have gained about 12% this month.

Reuters said both benchmarks pulled back after Friday, when Brent settled more than $3 higher and posted a weekly gain of 6%, while West Texas Intermediate rose 2.3% on the week. It said Brent fell more than $2 a barrel earlier on Monday. A settlement is a market result. It is not a view on where the next one should be.

The reports tied the session to diplomacy and to claims of attacks. CNBC said Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman met Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Supreme National Security Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei in Tehran, and that Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir and Turkish intelligence head Ibrahim Kalin also took part. Reuters said the talks were the first high-level contact between Iran and Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan, which it said signed a mutual defence pact in August, and that Iranian state media reported an agreement to keep talking. It also said Qatari mediators went to Tehran on Sunday in coordination with the United States, according to an official briefed on the matter. This article is not treating that official’s account as independently confirmed.

On the fighting, Reuters said Yemen’s Houthis said they struck pumping stations on Saudi Arabia’s East-West crude pipeline and Riyadh airport over the weekend, and that there was no immediate Saudi confirmation. CNBC likewise said the Houthis said they fired missiles at Riyadh’s international airport and launched drones at oil pumping stations, and that the Saudis had not confirmed those strikes. Reuters said a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said on Monday it had destroyed three drones targeting Riyadh and the kingdom’s southern regions. Those are claims as the two newsrooms reported them, not a finding that a particular site was hit.

Reuters also said the U.S. Department of Energy said on Monday that crude in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell to 282.6 million barrels last week, the lowest level since October 1982. It said the energy ministers of Saudi Arabia and Singapore said Saudi Aramco would start storing crude in Singapore from the second half of 2027. CNBC reported that storage plan as well, attributing it to the two countries’ energy ministers. Neither figure is a prediction of the oil price.