Crude oil prices opened lower today and are on track for a second straight weekly decline as market concerns over escalating U.S.-Iran tensions eased.

At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at $67.36 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude stood at $62.66 per barrel. Both benchmarks were largely flat on Monday but had retreated from earlier weekly highs.

An analyst noted that signs the U.S. is seeking more time to reach a nuclear agreement with Iran have reduced short-term geopolitical risk premiums, putting downward pressure on oil prices.

Meanwhile, commodity analysts pointed out that data released this week by OPEC and the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed the market largely ignored the EIA report, which indicated a crude inventory build of 8.53 million barrels and a daily production increase of 498,000 barrels.

On the other hand, OPEC's latest report maintained an optimistic tone for oil traders, keeping its forecast for average daily demand growth unchanged at 1.38 million barrels for this year and 1.34 million barrels for 2027. However, OPEC's daily production fell by 439,000 barrels last month, mainly due to production disruptions in Kazakhstan.

Conversely, the International Energy Agency's latest monthly oil report, released on Thursday, drove oil prices down by 3%. The IEA revised its average daily demand growth forecast down to 850,000 barrels, having just raised it to 930,000 barrels the previous month.

The IEA also confirmed its projection that the crude oil market will be in a state of oversupply by 2026, with global daily supply increasing by 2.4 million barrels for the year to 108.6 million barrels. The agency stated that the supply growth would be roughly split between non-OPEC+ and OPEC+ producers. However, due to extreme cold weather in North America and production cuts in Kazakhstan, global daily crude supply fell sharply by 1.2 million barrels last month to 106.6 million barrels.