Meanwhile, Trump considers more strikes against Iran prior to the Midterms: File Image/Pixabay.

The sense that order is returning to the global energy market despite Iran’s continued attempts to disrupt it caused another round of losses for two key benchmarks on Wednesday; however, gloomy analysts suspected that increased movement of crude through Middle East waterways – which is driving nascent trading optimism – won’t last.

After the International Energy Agency agreed to accelerate a release of about 100 million barrels of oil stocks and prioritize diesel in order to tame record-high fuel prices in Europe, Brent settled down 38 cents at $100.20 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate settled down $1.16 at $88.28 per barrel.

John Kilduff, founding partner at Again Capital, said, "Europe is ground zero for this whole supply crunch ... and the releases address that and [take] some ⁠of the heat off the need for WTI to a degree; this should reduce some of the pressure on U.S. supplies."

Meanwhile, Tamas Varga, analyst at PVM, said investors are not convinced that recent rises in supply and exports from the Middle East are sustainable.

Varga was referring to Vitol reporting in the previous session that around 12 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude and 2 million bpd of refined products left the Middle East ⁠on tankers in the last seven to 10 days.

As for the hostilities between the U.S. and Iran, oil trading gained some traction Wednesday after a report that the White House asked the Pentagon to develop strike options against the Islamic republic that could take place before the Midterm elections; U.S. president Donald Trump has repeatedly stated that the war would end, peacefully or otherwise, after the Midterms, but in recent days he signalled to media that termination had to be done quickly.

In other oil news, Iran’s meddling in the Strait of Hormuz took its toll on Iraq, which on Wednesday devalued  its dinar currency by 14.5 percent, setting the exchange rate at 1,52 per dollar after months of transit disruptions in the waterway.

Iraqi shipments in August fell to about 2.3 million bpd in August, compared to more than 3.6 million bpd before the war; the country is reportedly building its 2027 budget around $58 oil and crude exports of around 4 million bpd, including shipments from the Kurdistan region.