Petroleum futures gave back early gains to trade lower at midday Thursday as a decision by OPEC and allied producers to extend production cuts again failed to get much traction in the market.

OPEC+ members early Thursday said they would continue production cuts through the first quarter and begin to unwind 1.65 million b/d of voluntary output reductions between April 2025 and the end of 2026.

West Texas Intermediate futures fell briefly below $68/bbl, but the NYMEX January WTI contract was off by 18cts to $68.36/bbl in early afternoon trading and the February Brent contract was down by about as much to $72.15/bbl.

Refined product futures were about 1ct lower, with the NYMEX RBOB contract down 1.1cts to $1.929/gal.

The NYMEX January ULSD contract was 0.74ct lower at $2.16/gal. Price declines in some U.S. spot market prices exceeded those in the paper market. In the Midwest, Group 3 cash gasoline prices were down by nearly 3cts to about $1.73/gal. Rack prices at some locations in the Midwest and Great Lakes have slipped to below $1.70/gal, according to OPIS data.

Cash gasoline prices in New York Harbor gasoline are the highest in the country, with prompt prices near $2/gal, leaving them 5 to 12cts higher than CARBOB in California.

Further, the nearly 20ct difference between the New York and Gulf Coast market is keeping Colonial line space values at about 5cts.


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 Jeff Barber, jbarber@opisnet.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

12-05-24 1322ET