Oil turns positive on report Iran rejects US proposal for Strait of Hormuz

By Siddharth Cavale

NEW YORK, May 7 (Reuters) – Oil prices turned positive on Thursday amid choppy trading following a report that Iran would not allow the United States to reopen the Strait of Hormuz with an “unrealistic plan.”

Brent crude futures were up 71 cents, or 0.7%, at $101.98 a barrel as of 1:36 PM EDT (1736 GMT), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was up $1.62, or 1.7%, at $96.70 a barrel.

Early in the session, both benchmarks were down more than $5 a barrel.

Iran will not allow the United States to reopen the Strait of Hormuz “with an unrealistic plan” and then exit the war without paying any compensation “for all the damage done to Iran,” the Wall Street Journal reported, citing Iran’s state broadcaster Press ‌TV, a senior Iranian official said.

(Reporting by Siddharth Cavale in New York, Robert Harvey in London, Yuka Obayashi in Tokyo and Emily Chow in Singapore. Additional reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Susan Fenton, Mark Potter ​and David Gregorio)