Donald Trump ordered a Justice Department probe into oil-company "gouging" on 24 June, accusing firms of not cutting pump prices as Brent crude slid to $76.14, down from $77.08 the day before1. Brent is the benchmark that sets the price of roughly two-thirds of internationally traded oil, so its direction feeds quickly into petrol prices and the politics around them.
The decline extends the slide that began as Trump's peak Hormuz threats were priced out at $77.54 on 22 June. What the market is reading is the gradual return of tanker traffic following General License X and the IMO evacuation, with UAE oil exports rebounding to about 85 per cent of pre-conflict levels2.
The pricing runs ahead of the physical reality. Mines remain in the navigable channels and P&I war-risk cover is still withdrawn, so the strait is recovering for rescue and selective trade rather than reopening in full. Trump's gouging probe blames refiners for a gap between falling crude and steady pump prices that the incomplete reopening, not corporate conduct, largely explains.
