Meanwhile, mixed messages abound regarding Hormuz transits: File Image/Pixabay.

Newly skeptical oil investors on Tuesday didn’t think much of sentiment from Pakistan that a peace deal between Iran and the U.S. was making progress; instead, their reaction to tensions on both sides reaching the boiling point took the form of crude rising by over 1 percent.

Pakistan’s defense minister Khawaja Asif told media that “things are shaping up again in favour of a peace arrangement or a deal.”

However, this statement came while the secretary of Iran’s supreme national security council, Mohsen Rezaei, demanded the U.S. unfreeze Iranian funds held overseas as condition for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz; and U.S. president Donald Trump countering that Iran pay reparations to the U.S.,for decades of violence against Western interests and its own people.

Meanwhile, mixed messages continued to be issued regarding transit through the Hormuz: while media is mainly repeating the narrative that very few ships are crossing the Strait, U.S. energy secretary Chris Wright on Tuesday said oil exports have reached a seven-day moving average of 9 million barrels per day (bpd) thanks to the U.S. military.

Wright added that when pipelines are included, total oil flows from the Gulf region are averaging around 15 million bpd.

In other oil news on Tuesday, vessel tracking data compiled by Bloomberg showed that Russia shipped 3.7 million bpd in the four weeks through August 9, the lowest level since May as Ukraine drone attacks disrupted loading at key ports.

Shipments averaged just 3.2 million bpd in the latest week, down from 3.5 million bpd a week earlier; and Novorossiysk, one of Russia’s main Black Sea export outlets, recently operated at half its crude-loading rate after attacks on tankers near the port.

Also on Tuesday, ship tracking data and information provided by sources within the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) showed that OPEC’s output in July rose to 19.8 million bpd, the second consecutive monthly increase, as many Gulf producers restored some output despite the Hormuz closure.

The July increase was led by Iraq and Kuwait, with Iraq showing the biggest monthly rise in production.