Citigroup: Oil prices will continue to fluctuate sharply, waiting for the clarity of the US Iran agreement Odaily Planet Daily reported that Max Layton, the head of global commodity research at Citigroup, stated that oil prices will continue to fluctuate sharply until the issue of whether Iran and Trump can reach an agreement becomes clear. It is difficult to predict whether Iran will reach an agreement, and in an environment where you have no idea if an agreement will be reached, the market is bound to be news driven and volatile. Crude oil fell for the third consecutive trading day on Thursday, and Layton said that this round of decline was partly due to "the market's hope that both sides can engage in agreement negotiations". However, the pressure on the physical crude oil market in the Middle East still exists. Traders said that a key crude oil loading terminal located outside the Strait of Hormuz in Oman experienced a shipment delay in April, disrupting transportation plans and potentially delaying delivery of goods to buyers. Layton stated that the global physical crude oil market has accumulated approximately 700-800 million barrels of "considerable buffer inventory" over the past 12 months. "We are rapidly depleting these inventories," he said, but the impact will "gradually manifest over a longer period of time. He added that before truly lowering the oil price forecast, he needs to see if Iran is ready to seriously reach an agreement with the United States. Last month, after the second round of US Iran peace talks failed, Citigroup raised its Brent crude oil benchmark price forecast by $15 to $110 per barrel and postponed the expected time for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz from mid to late April to the end of May. (Golden Ten)