Oil Prices Hover Around Prewar Levels as Gulf Shipping Jumps

Oil prices fell on Thursday, testing levels not seen since the war in Iran started in February.After surging over the past four months, oil prices have retreated sharply since the United States and Iran reached a preliminary agreement this month to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical trading route for oil and gas exports from the Middle East.Traffic through the strait has moved steadily higher this week.On Wednesday, about 70 vessels transited the waterway, including 29 tankers, making it the busiest day since March 1, according to Kpler, a maritime data company.The slide in oil prices has gathered pace as efforts to clear a backlog of ships trapped in the Persian Gulf have advanced, easing concerns about supply disruptions.On Thursday, the price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, fell about 1 percent to about $73 a barrel.

In an otherwise quiet trading session, prices at one point dipped just below $72.48 a barrel, the daily settlement price on the eve of the first U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran.West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S.benchmark, fell about half a percent to around $70 a barrel.

This grade of crude was just over $67 per barrel on the day before the start of the war....