NYMEX Overview: Oil Falls on Report Israel May Spare Iranian Energy Assets — OPIS

A five-day rally in petroleum futures may end on Tuesday as contracts were sharply lower at midday on a report that Israel's expected retaliatory strike against Iran will likely spare that country's oil infrastructure.

The New York Times reported Israel's military was more likely to target Iranian military facilities and sites linked to intelligence assets and leadership. The market had rallied in large part on speculation Israel would target Iran's oil or nuclear infrastructure.

Crude oil prices, which had risen by about $9/bbl over the last five sessions, were off by about $4 at midday.

The NYMEX November West Texas Intermediate contract was off by $3.96 to $73.19/bbl and the December Brent crude contract was $3.57 lower at $77.36/bbl.

Refined products contracts were following suit, with both gasoline and diesel contracts off by double digits, after having added more than 20cts during the rally.

The NYMEX November ULSD contract was down by 11.67cts to $2.2795/gal, about 0.3ct above the morning low. Most of the weakness is concentrated in the front-month contract, widening some of the carry.

The NYMEX November RBOB contract was more than 10cts lower at $2.0519/gal, up from an intraday low of $2.0474/gal.

U.S. cash gasoline markets were taking their direction from futures, with Gulf Coast CBOB spot prices close to dropping below $2/gal as its discount to the NYMEX widened to 5.25cts.

Futures trading volume was robust Tuesday morning, as had been the case for the past five sessions. Over that period, total WTI volume has averaged more than 1.35 million contracts and the more than 1.72 million contracts traded on Oct. 1 represented a 2024 high for the contract.

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

October 08, 2024 12:47 ET (16:47 GMT)

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