Oil Futures Slip Friday but Hold Weekly Gains as Hormuz Risks Persist

Oil futures slipped early Friday but remained higher for the week, as vessel incidents in the Strait of Hormuz and a steep draw in U.S. crude inventories kept attention on supply. WTI had outpaced Brent’s weekly gain in the latest snapshot.

At 2:23 a.m. ET (06:23 UTC) Oct. 16, Brent crude futures fell 50 cents, or 0.47%, to $105.42 a barrel. WTI declined 49 cents, or 0.50%, to $97.48. Brent was up 0.49% for the week so far, while WTI had gained 5.91%.

Maritime alerts posted from Oct. 12 to Oct. 14 described tankers and cargo ships struck by unknown projectiles in the Strait. Authorities were investigating. The waterway carried roughly a quarter of global seaborne oil trade in 2025, averaging 20 million barrels per day of crude and oil products.

U.S. commercial crude inventories, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, fell to 415.577 million barrels in the week ended Oct. 9, down 8.557 million barrels from 424.134 million the previous week. Separately, Hurricane Isaias had led to shut-ins of about 1.3 million barrels per day of crude production by Oct. 8.

About 330 million barrels had been released under the March 2026 emergency action by Oct. 15, with roughly 100 million barrels still to come. Member countries agreed to accelerate the remaining releases, including more than 20 million barrels of diesel for delivery as soon as possible.