Oil extended gains for a fourth straight session on Aug. 11, with West Texas Intermediate trading above $83 a barrel as the market tracked negotiations over reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a key global shipping chokepoint. WTI has climbed about 11% over the past four sessions, while Brent ended the previous session near $89 a barrel. Prices have been swinging with headlines around the talks. Pakistan Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said the US and Iran are "approaching some kind of agreement" over the waterway, and Al Jazeera reported, citing a spokesperson for Qatar's Foreign Ministry, that talks between Iran and Oman had reached an advanced stage. The moves come even as military tensions remain high in the Middle East, including an incident in which a US Navy helicopter fired two Hellfire missiles at a Panama-flagged cargo ship attempting to break through an Iranian port blockade. Helge Andre Martinsen, chief oil analyst at DNB Bank, said the market was hard to read with conviction because it was being driven heavily by headlines. Separately, the US Energy Information Administration projected that oil supply disruptions tied to the Iran conflict will reach about 600,000 barrels a day by the end of 2027, while the American Petroleum Institute said US crude inventories rose by 9.1 million barrels last week. If official data due later on Aug. 11 shows a similar increase, it would be the biggest inventory build since February.