Oil prices surge as Strait of Hormuz talks hit deadlock over war compensation

The latest attack happened two days after the kingdom signed a defence pact with Sunni Muslim allies Turkey and Pakistan in response to growing regional instability from the US-Israeli war with Iran. ADNOC, a state-owned oil company in the United Arab Emirates, said on Friday that 15 of its vessels had been attacked while transiting the Strait of Hormuz since the beginning of the conflict.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's military continued to attack Russia's energy infrastructure. Ukrainian strikes hit the Taneco oil refinery in Tatarstan and the ZapSibNeftekhim petrochemical plant in Russia's Tyumen region.

On the US supply side, stocks of crude oil in the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell by about 6.1 million barrels to 298.7 million barrels last week, the lowest level since January 1983, according to data from the Department of Energy.

(Reporting by Arathy Somasekhar in Houston, Stephanie Kelly in London and Helen Clark in Perth; Editing by David Goodman, Paul Simao and Mark Potter)