Oil fell 2 percent on talk of a Hormuz corridor
Brent was near $86.80. Washington is leaning on sanctions and maritime pressure while mines and one tanker hit still cloud the strait.
Brent crude dropped about 2% on Wednesday, to around $86.80 a barrel, and WTI was near $80.87, after Iran said it had restarted talks with Oman on managing the Strait of Hormuz.
Economic Times, citing market reporting, said the two sides discussed a joint temporary navigational corridor and agreed to clear mines. The waterway handled about one-fifth of global oil and LNG shipments before this year's conflict. Both benchmarks had already lost more than 3% on Tuesday.
Separately, India Today reported that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told allied foreign ministers Washington does not currently expect fresh strikes on Iran and will intensify sanctions and maritime pressure instead. The military option stays if Iran attacks first. Reuters also said the US is starting to send some personnel back to Middle East missions that were thinned or evacuated, a sign officials see a lower near-term escalation risk.
The calm is incomplete. UK Maritime Trade Operations said an oil tanker was struck by an unidentified projectile near Oman's Ash Shishah, at the entrance to the strait, and disabled.
India imports most of its crude. Hormuz is not a distant headline when diesel and cooking gas prices are political.
A corridor talk can knock $2 off Brent in a morning. A single projectile can put it back. Rubio's line tells allies the White House wants economic squeeze more than another round of bombs, which is also a bet that markets will stay range-bound rather than panic.
Watch whether the temporary corridor actually opens, whether more tankers are hit, and how far the new US sanctions threat reaches countries still trading with Tehran.