Oil plunges as US and Iran boost peace hopes by declar­ing Hor­muz strait open

^{ANDREW ENGLAND AND MALCOLM MOORE — LONDON HUMZA JILANI — ISLAMABAD STEFF CHÁVEZ — WASHINGTON Addi­tional report­ing by Alice Han­cock FT 17-04-2026}

Oil prices tumbled yes­ter­day after the US and Iran declared the Strait of Hor­muz open for ship­ping and Don­ald Trump sig­nalled that the war with Tehran was close to an end.

The US pres­id­ent said the stra­tegic choke­point in the Gulf was “ready for busi­ness and full pas­sage”, thank­ing Iran after for­eign min­is­ter Abbas Aragh­chi said the strait would be “com­pletely open” for the remainder of a two-week cease­fire that expires on Tues­day night.

Hopes of an end to the war spurred Brent crude, the oil bench­mark, to drop more than 11 per cent to about $88 a bar­rel, its low­est for five weeks, while European gas prices fell 10 per cent.

Stocks and bonds ral­lied, with the S&P 500 rising 1.2 per cent, on course for a weekly gain of almost 5 per cent.

While sev­eral oil exec­ut­ives raised con­cerns over the strait being mined, a hand­ful of ves­sels appeared to be pre­par­ing to exit the Gulf.

Ship-track­ing satel­lites showed at least 15 ves­sels, includ­ing a Greekowned oil tanker and three con­tainer ships belong­ing to the French ship­ping line CMA CGM, head­ing for the strait.

The clos­ure of the water­way for the past seven weeks has triggered a global energy crisis and provided Tehran with a sig­ni­fic­ant source of lever­age.

The declar­a­tions that the strait was open came after the US pressed Israel to pause its offens­ive against Hizbol­lah in Lebanon, an Ira­nian con­di­tion to allow ships to pass. Iran would still insist that ves­sels gain per­mis­sion from the Islamic Revolu­tion­ary Guard Corps before trans­it­ing the strait, an offi­cial told state TV.

Trump said the US naval block­ade he ordered to pre­vent ships enter­ing or leav­ing Ira­nian ports would remain until a deal had been reached to end the war. The pro­cess, Trump said yes­ter­day, “should go very quickly in that most of the points are already nego­ti­ated”.

Dip­lo­mats warned no talks were sched­uled and dif­fer­ences over Iran’s nuc­lear project con­tin­ued to be the main bar­rier. Pakistan has been lead­ing medi­ation, with one non-Pakistani dip­lo­mat say­ing Islamabad was seek­ing an exten­sion of the truce in case an agree­ment was not sealed before it expired.