Oil prices today: Crude heads for weekly losses as Hormuz flows remain choppy

Oil prices were largely steady on Friday but remained on track for a sharp weekly decline as traders weighed stalled US-Iran diplomatic talks against a tentative and uneven recovery in crude flows through the Strait of Hormuz.Brent crude futures were down 4 cents at $89.66 a barrel at 0943 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell 32 cents, or 0.38%, to $83.21 a barrel.Both benchmarks were set to end the week lower, with Brent down 5.1% and WTI declining 4.5%.“A combination of US tactics moving to economic sanctions rather than military pressure and talks of Oman-Iran's joint corridor have led to risk premiums declining,” Suvro Sarkar, head of energy research at DBS Bank, told Reuters.The US announced what it called the “toughest sanctions in history” on Iran earlier this week.