Oil falls more than 1% on proposed Saudi-led maritime defence coalition 

By Georgina McCartney

July 30 (Reuters) - Oil fell on Thursday in ‌volatile trade as investors considered ​proposed plans for ​a Saudi Arabia-led maritime coalition to boost defence cooperation around the Red Sea, reversing a rise in prices earlier in the session after Washington and Tehran traded strikes on each other's military targets again.

Brent futures were down $1.26, or 1.39%, at $89.48 a barrel at 12:41 p.m. EDT after ‌touching a high of $93.31.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were down 53 cents, or 0.63%, at $83.93, after hitting a high of $85.94.

Saudi ⁠Arabia is seeking to lead a coalition with other countries to boost defence cooperation in the Bab El-Mandeb Strait, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The Saudi defence ministry said 14 states ‌including Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, Sudan and Djibouti have ‌issued a joint statement in support of the proposed multinational maritime defence coalition.

Iran-aligned Houthi militants in Yemen declared a naval blockade last week on Saudi Arabia, threatening the Red Sea route — an alternative to the largely blockaded Strait of Hormuz — for its oil to Asia.

"There is this sense that there is a lot of ​supply waiting to hit market once all of this is resolved, and that is a weight against any kind of dramatic price rise," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital.

Talks between Iran and Oman on the management of the Strait of Hormuz continue, according to the Iranian Labour News Agency, despite news on Wednesday ⁠that Iran had ruled out Oman's proposal for regional joint management of the waterway, according to a senior Iranian official.

"The fact that Oman is in talks with Iran could suggest that progress is being made on ​re-opening the Strait of Hormuz," said Hamad Hussain, a climate and commodities economist at Capital Economics.

The strait, which normally handles around a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flows, has remained a focal point for oil markets since the Iran ​war began on February 28.

"Until safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz is no longer ‌a gamble, the risk premium in oil is not going anywhere — hope for diplomacy is welcome, but the market is pricing in the reality of ongoing strikes," said Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade.

MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT WIDENS

The U.S. military said it ⁠had hit dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets in Iran in an operation launched after Tehran fired ballistic missiles at U.S. forces in the Middle East.

No U.S. aircraft were destroyed or damaged in the recent attempted Iranian attacks, the U.S. military said on Thursday, denying a claim it said was made by Iran's Revolutionary Guards that three U.S. F-35 jets and three other ⁠aircraft were destroyed.

"That lowers temperature on the situation," said Again Capital's Kilduff.

A drone caused a fire that engulfed two gas vessels at Egypt's Mediterranean port of Damietta, the Egyptian cabinet said ​on Thursday, confirming that the blaze which erupted a day earlier was the result of an attack rather than an accident.

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis attacked Saudi Arabia this week from Iraqi territory in coordination with Iraqi armed groups, according to assessments by Saudi Arabia and regional partners, reflecting growing coordination among Iran-aligned militias, two officials in the region said.

The attacks included strikes on oil ‌facilities in Saudi Arabia's eastern province, the kingdom's main crude hub.

In another blow to supply, tankers planned for loading at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) terminal are heading away from the Black Sea after a vessel was hit during loading at the ‌terminal on Thursday, two sources said and shipping data showed.

A Ukrainian drone attack caused a fire at Lukoil's Perm refinery that damaged and forced the shutdown of one of its crude distillation ⁠units, two industry sources told Reuters.

"Given the disruption to flows through ‌several maritime chokepoints, as well as the rapid ​depletion of oil inventories, prices could feasibly be even higher than where they sit currently," Capital Economics' Hussain added.

(Reporting by Georgina McCartney in Houston, Anushree Mukherjee, Enes Tunagur in London, Mohi Narayan in New Delhi and Colleen Howe in Beijing; Editing by Jason Neely, Kirsten Donovan ‌and Nia Williams)

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