Oil steadies after US threatens to blockade Iran indefinitely

The United States on Thursday said it could maintain a naval blockade of Iran indefinitely and would ramp up economic pressure on Tehran as ceasefire talks have stalled.

"Watch this space for more announcements coming next week because we are going to apply measures like have never been seen in the history of economic isolation on a country," U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview on Newsmax's "Rob Schmitt Tonight" program.

The latest U.S. threats come as Iran continues to limit traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which carried 20% of the world’s oil before the conflict, driving up fuel prices and putting pressure on U.S. President Donald Trump to end a war that is unpopular at home.

The recently appointed head of Iran's Basj paramilitary unit, Hossein Taeb, said the strait is "under the management and control of the Islamic Republic", according to the semi-official Fars news.

The prospect of a longer war constraining supply was offset this week by forecasts from OPEC and the International Energy Agency lowering their outlooks for demand growth, while data showed U.S. crude stocks made their largest weekly gain in over three and a half years.