The Commodities Feed: Oil slides despite stalled US-Iran talks in Oil & Companies News 05/06/2026 Energy – Oil product inventories fall in Europe and Singapore While there are few signs of progress in US-Iran talks, the oil market continues to trade on expectations of an imminent deal that would resume flows through the Strait of Hormuz. This seems overly optimistic as Hezbollah rejects the Lebanon-Israel ceasefire. This development will not help US-Iran negotiations. Sizeable inventories in the lead-up to the war have provided a buffer for the market. This buffer is shrinking with every passing day. With the seasonally stronger summer still ahead of us, we could see demand grow by more than 3m b/d quarter-on-quarter in the third quarter. The pace of inventory declines will only intensify through the July-September period. This will leave the market increasingly vulnerable and would require significantly higher prices to ensure demand destruction through the summer. As we’ve seen since the war began, demand destruction does not need to come solely from higher crude oil prices — a lot of damage can be done by higher refined product prices. In Europe, refined product inventories in the ARA region fell by 17kt week-on-week to 4.4mt, according to Insights Global. Gasoline and jet fuel saw the largest declines, with stocks falling 81kt and 49kt, respectively. The drop in jet fuel inventories left stock levels at their lowest since 2020. The market has been worried over availability through the summer. Still, increased inflows from the US and other regions, combined with refiners boosting jet‑fuel output, helped ease much of the expected market tightness. However, as refiners shift yields toward jet fuel, other products—especially gasoline and diesel—face a heightened risk of further tightening. Aligned with the inventory-tightening narrative, Singapore oil product stocks fell by a significant 6.14m barrels over the last week. This is the largest weekly decline since