Oil rose for a fourth straight session as Washington and Tehran continued to issue conflicting statements over whether the Strait of Hormuz remains open to shipping.

Brent crude edged higher to around $91 a barrel in early Asia trade on Wednesday, while US West Texas Intermediate rose to around $85. Both contracts were building on Tuesday's close, when they ended at their highest levels since July 24 as hopes for a US-Iran peace deal continued to fade.

President Trump said on Tuesday that no talks were taking place with Iran and reiterated that the Strait of Hormuz remains open, directly contradicting Iran's assertion that the waterway is shut to shipping. The dispute has left traders without a clear picture of the strait's operational status, helping keep a risk premium in prices over recent sessions. The stakes are unusually high because Hormuz is the world's most important oil chokepoint: roughly a fifth of the petroleum liquids consumed globally transits it each day, and with no sea route around it, the only alternatives for moving Gulf crude are a handful of overland pipelines, chiefly Saudi Arabia's East-West line and the UAE's link to the port of Fujairah.

A temporary ceasefire agreement between the two countries expired on Monday. A senior Iranian official told Reuters that Iran was shifting toward a more hardline stance amid the diplomatic stalemate, although there were no reports of fresh strikes by either side on Tuesday.

The lack of new attacks has not eased concern in the market, because uncertainty over the actual status of transit through the strait remains unresolved. Physical market participants are increasingly adjusting shipping routes around that risk rather than waiting for clarity. Beyond the competing official statements from Washington and Tehran, traders track freight rates, insurance costs and tanker transit data for any evidence of how the standoff is affecting real-world flows.

Iraq's cabinet approved a new mechanism allowing crude exports through specialized international and local companies via multiple outlets, with contracts running for three months from September 1. The move is intended in part to reduce Iraq's exposure to the Strait of Hormuz, given the country's heavy reliance on southern Gulf export terminals. Unlike Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Iraq has no significant overland bypass pipeline, leaving its crude exports almost entirely dependent on terminals that ship through the strait.

Separately, Reuters reported that two major Chinese shipping companies have stopped sending oil tankers through both the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab al-Mandeb strait amid the conflict, according to industry executives, tanker trackers and a ship broker. Instead, they are collecting cargoes from locations outside the Gulf. Bab al-Mandeb, the narrow waterway linking the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, is a second major chokepoint for oil and commercial shipping that has faced repeated attacks since late 2023.

Together, those moves suggest that parts of the physical oil market are beginning to adapt structurally to the shipping risk rather than treating it as a short-lived disruption likely to fade quickly.