The New York Times reports that an oil deal connected to business associates of President Trump has become part of talks, brokered by the United States, to end Russia's war in Ukraine.
US President Donald Trump has rejected an Iranian offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway Gulf oil exporters use to ship crude to world markets.
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright arrived in Venezuela to sign a deal in which the US government will set up and control a company holding 65 billion barrels of Venezuela's oil reserves, an amount the country has kept underground.
President Trump said Iran's Kharg Island oil terminal, which handles about 90% of the country's crude oil exports, is being destroyed, but gave no evidence or details, according to Reuters.
The US and Venezuela have agreed that Washington will take control of a fifth of Venezuela's oil reserves, the largest in the world, President Trump said after talks with acting president Delcy Rodríguez.
The United States has tightened sanctions on Iran, and global stock markets mostly rose in response while oil prices fell and European defence company shares jumped.
A projectile struck an oil tanker off the coast of Oman in the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow sea passage that nearly all Gulf oil exports must travel through, including from Iran.
Days after the US announced new sanctions on Iran, its currency, the rial, has dropped to its lowest value on record.
Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman that carries much of the world's oil, has slowed further, Reuters reports, as the United States threatens new economic penalties on Iran.
Iran has said it will only reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow sea passage that much of the world's oil ships through, if the United States lifts its economic sanctions on Iran.
A bulk carrier hit by an unidentified projectile in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman through which much of the world's oil is shipped, is now on fire, with its crew fighting the blaze and one seafarer missing.
Chinese companies are giving Iran satellite reconnaissance help and drone parts, while China keeps buying Iranian oil, according to Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung.