Nymex Overview: Oil Set for Fourth Daily Drop; OPEC+ Output Hike in Focus — OPIS
Crude oil contracts were lower heading into Tuesday midday trade, weighed down by oversupply concerns after OPEC and its allied producers opted to increase production again in September, offsetting worries about the threat of more U.S. sanctions against Russian oil exports.
At 11:50 a.m. ET, September NYMEX West Texas Intermediate was off by 80cts to $65.50/bbl and October WTI was down 75cts at $64.55/bbl.
London-based October ICE Brent was also off by 75cts to around $68/bbl and November Brent was 65cts lower at 67.35/bbl.
The crude oil benchmarks are on track to finish lower for a fourth consecutive session, currently down about $4-5/bbl since Wednesday.
Over the weekend, eight OPEC+ members agreed to raise the group's production by 547,000 b/d in September for a fifth-straight monthly increase in the oil cartel's output. That is on track to completely reverse OPEC's nearly two-year effort to unwind 2.2 million b/d production curbs following Covid demand destruction.
Mariano Alonso, an analyst at research firm Rystad Energy, said in a Tuesday note that OPEC's increased production offers a buffer to stabilize prices in the near term. On the other hand, uncertainty over potential U.S. measures against Russia and buyers of Russian oil could affect the price of oil, he said.
Diesel prices outperformed gasoline in midday trade. September NYMEX ULSD was down by 5.65cts to $2.26/gal and October ULSD was 5.3cts lower at $2.2580/gal.
September RBOB was down by 0.6ct to $2.097/gal and October RBOB was off by 0.1ct to $1.9435/gal.
In the spot market, Pacific Northwest sub-octane gasoline prices jumped 8.5cts, while most other physical products mirrored NYMEX futures movements.
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 Frank Tang, ftang@opisnet.com; Editing by Michael Kelly, mkelly@opisnet.com