Nymex Overview: Petroleum Futures Steady to Start the Week — OPIS

Petroleum futures were steady at midday Monday, trading either side of unchanged with products seeing slightly better moves than crude oil.

While the market continues to dissect the past week's moves in Venezuela, the more short-term concern is in Iran, where protests continue to gain steam and the Iranian government has vowed to crack down. President Trump has warned the Iranian government about the killing of protestors including increased sanctions and possible military action.

Any action in Iran is expected to have more profound impact on prices than Venezuela in the short term. What also may help oil start to move higher is the time of year, as the market may have reached a seasonal low as prices inch up, with West Texas Intermediate on Friday and again Monday making a run at the $60 level.

Front month WTI peaked at $59.80 on Sunday evening but has not quite reached those levels again as the contract was trading at $59/bbl at midday, down around 10cts. Meanwhile, Brent touched $64/bbl, a level that has not been seen since Dec. 5. At midday, March Brent was unchanged at $63.34/bbl, which was where the market opened on Sunday evening.

RBOB and ULSD are trading either side of unchanged after a run higher this morning.

Front month RBOB futures over the past two trading sessions have spent some brief moments above $1.80 but have failed to maintain much traction above that mark. Around midday, the February RBOB contract was up just inside of 0.5cts, trading at $1.7846/gal. March RBOB was starting to see volumes perk up in relation to February, and that contract was trading at $1.8118/gal with a slightly stronger move to the upside.

ULSD was just about unchanged around midday, with the front-month contract trading at $2.135/gal. The contract reached as high as $2.1519/gal, which is about a two-week high. Typically, diesel starts to lose some of its strength this time of year but has the potential to be part of sympathy rallies, with crude oil and RBOB moving higher.

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