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European Oil Markets
27JUL

Trump orders a DOJ oil-gouging probe

2 min read
10:27UTC

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.

← Back to Saudi crude reroutes to Suez, freight bitesJump to analysis ↓
EconomicDeveloping
Key takeaway

Brent fell to $76.14 on a partial Hormuz recovery, and Trump blamed refiners for pump prices that have not followed.

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 before 1. 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 levels 2.

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 Mines remain in the navigable channels and P&I war-risk cover is still withdrawn, so the strait is recovering for rescue and selective trade rather than reopening in full.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.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

On 24 June, the price of Brent crude oil; the global benchmark used to set energy costs worldwide; fell to $76.14 per barrel. That is down from $77.08 the previous day and roughly 36% below its peak during the worst of the conflict. The UAE has largely restored its oil exports to about 85% of what they were before the fighting. President Trump ordered the US Justice Department to investigate oil companies for 'gouging'; charging customers too much at the pump even as wholesale prices fell. Brent's decline reflects growing confidence that more tankers are moving through the Strait of Hormuz, though the strait is not fully open: mines still need to be cleared and shipping insurance has not fully returned.

Sources:Trading Economics
Mentions:Donald Trump →Department of Justice →Brent Crude →Strait of Hormuz →General License X →United Arab Emirates (UAE) →
First Reported In

Update #137 · Iran and Oman claim the strait; US says no

Trading Economics· 24 Jun 2026
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Causes and effects
Caused by
Brent falls through Trump's war talk
Brent's further slide to $76.14 extends the pricing-out of war premium that began at $77.54 on 22 June.
Occurred 22 Jun 2026
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This Event
Trump orders a DOJ oil-gouging probe
The market is pricing in a Hormuz reopening that mines and absent insurance have not actually delivered.
Led to
Brent falls below its pre-war level
Brent fell from $76.14 on 24 June (ID:4468) to $72.64-$73.72 on 25 June, erasing the war premium across two sessions.
Occurred 25 Jun 2026
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Brent falls straight through the strikes
Brent fell from $76.14 on 24 June to $71.99 on 26 June, a 5.4 per cent decline through the IRGC attack and CENTCOM counter-strike, continuing the post-24 June downtrend.
Occurred 26 Jun 2026
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The sanctions that need no signature
Trump's DOJ oil-gouging probe sits alongside Economic Fury as motion not requiring settling the war.
Occurred 1 Jul 2026
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Different Perspectives
Asian buyers (India, Japan, China, South Korea)
Asian buyers (India, Japan, China, South Korea)
Asian refiners are absorbing 62% of Yanbu's 3.75m b/d flow, the bulk of Saudi Arabia's rerouted crude now clearing east rather than into the Atlantic basin. That destination split leaves Asian buyers more exposed to any single Yanbu-specific disruption than under the kingdom's normal multi-terminal export pattern.
Russia / Lukoil
Russia / Lukoil
Moscow loses the roughly $14-a-barrel legal headroom the frozen price-cap formula would otherwise have released toward $58, even as Urals trades below Russia's own $59 budget floor. The shadow-fleet insurance workaround the freeze leaves untouched remains the actual route sanctioned crude clears above $44 in practice.
European Union / Council
European Union / Council
Brussels adopted its 21st sanctions package on 23 July, letting boarding states confiscate and sell shadow-fleet cargo outright and freezing the G7 price cap's automatic adjustment to mid-2027, converting indefinite tanker storage into recoverable value for enforcers.
Freight and tanker desks
Freight and tanker desks
The Baltic Exchange's TD3C VLCC benchmark, most desks' reference for Gulf freight, prices a single-vessel voyage while Saudi shippers now pay for two Suezmax charters at roughly double the transit time. That gap leaves any book hedged purely on TD3C carrying unrecognised Suezmax basis risk on the bulk of Saudi rerouted volume.
Mediterranean refiners (Sines, Trieste, Augusta)
Mediterranean refiners (Sines, Trieste, Augusta)
Refiners already facing aframax rates up 198% month-on-month now watch Ain Sokhna draw 23% of Yanbu's rerouted crude through the same SUMED corridor they lean on for product backfill. Fujairah and ARA stocks near record lows leave little room to absorb a thinner Suez product flow.
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
Riyadh has rerouted its entire western-coast crude book through Yanbu and Suez since the 23 July Bab el-Mandeb embargo, absorbing a roughly $2m-per-voyage Suezmax premium on every diverted cargo. The kingdom's fiscal breakeven near $108 a barrel makes that freight cost, not the blockade itself, the more durable drag on export economics.