- U.S. President Donald Trump vows to hold Iran "responsible" if rocket attacks persist
- The U.S. Central Command claimed they "will hold Iran accountable for the deaths of any Americans that result from the work of these Iranian-backed rogue militia groups"
- This comes as President-elect Biden has been open about his willingness to re-open relations with Iran, including the potential lifting of an Iranian crude embargo
- Iran's oil minister, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, says the country plans to hike crude and condensate output to 4.5mn b/d in the next Iranian year that begins on 21 March, and to boost exports to 2.3mn b/d, according to Argus
- The market received lackluster storage data from the EIA on Wednesday
- The EIA reported a draw of (-) 562 MBbls for the week ending December 18, well above the estimate of a (-) 2,889 MBbls draw
- Inventories for the U.S. are now at a surplus of 52.701 MMBbls to last year and a surplus of 46.99 MMBbls to the five-year average