Morning weakness across the petroleum complex Tuesday has given way to some nominal gains in crude oil and ULSD while RBOB moved back above $2.80/gallon.

The U.S. is preparing fresh sanctions against Iran, Treasure Secretary Janet Yellen told reporters earlier Tuesday, and that may have helped reverse losses. For now, the market has become somewhat rangebound with Brent, for example, remaining around $90 a barrel.

Since hitting a 2024 high on Friday of $87.67/bbl, May West Texas Intermediate futures have been consistently trading some $1 to $3 lower this week. The highs on Monday and so far Tuesday were just over $86, and heading into midday the May WTI contract is trading at $85.56/bbl, a marginal 15ct gain.

June Brent is behaving similarly, with prices backing away from Friday's highs but trading at $90.31/bbl, a 21ct gain.

Refined product futures are being led by an increase in RBOB that sees the May contract jumping back above $2.80/gal. While ULSD is just barely in positive territory, the main feature is a widening contango structure in the near-term.

May RBOB is trading around the highs at $2.8082/gal, an increase of 2.43cts. With the recovery in the May contract, the backwardation to June and July is starting to widen as current prices are some 3cts above June and more than 7cts higher than July.

Cash markets are largely following RBOB futures, but a few markets stand out. The New York Harbor, now trading low-RVP material, has seen CBOB and RBOB prompt prices jumping by some 30.5-31cts Tuesday. San Francisco CARBOB premiums, which were approaching $1 just about a week ago, have since backed off to 42cts and are just a half cent higher than Los Angeles.

ULSD has narrowed declines and is just about unchanged ahead of midday, but the outer month contracts are outperforming May, leading to some wider contango developing. Carry from May to June started to show up late last week before disappearing. The carry has come back as June ULSD is a little more than a half cent above May.

The May ULSD contract was last trading at $2.6542/gal, while June is 0.24cts higher at $2.6604/gal.


This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.


--Reporting by Denton Cinquegrana, dcinquegrana@opisnet.com; Editing by Michael Kelly, mkelly@opisnet.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

04-16-24 1245ET