Petroleum futures were mixed at midday Monday with modest gains and declines, while U.S. natural gas futures were especially weak on forecasts that don’t include any severe cold.
A first-half 2024 strip of NYMEX natural gas futures could be had Monday at an average price of $2.22/MMBtu.
Crude contract largely has moved mostly sideways today with small losses for both benchmarks. The February Brent contract was off 10cts to $75.74/bbl and the NYMEX January West Texas Intermediate contract was down 17cts to $71.06/bbl as midday approached.
Gasoline may be in the early stages of carving out a bottom. The low print last week of $1.998/gal for the NYMEX January RBOB contract hasn’t been repeated, with the January contract down 0.4ct to $2.0458/gal. U.S. retail median price for gasoline is at $2.999/gal and a stumble to a new multi-year appears to be possible by week’s end.
With 20 days left in 2023, the year is shaping up to be the best twelve months ever for gasoline retailers. OPIS data showed rack-to-retail margins averaging a strong 48.5cts/gal over the last seven days. Diesel returns are also strong, with rack-to-retail margins averaging close to 86cts/gal over the last week.
Diesel futures managed to eke out a small gain at midday, despite what appears to be a lack of enthusiasm for heating fuels. The NYMEX January ULSD contract was up 2.58cts to $2.6068 in quiet trading.
Spot markets were mixed with gains of 2.5-3cts/gal in New York and Chicago and Gulf Coast values down by just over 2cts/gal.
Cash gasoline prices were mostly weaker. Chicago has seen prices dip to lows last seen in 2021, with discounts to the NYMEX widening to 37.5cts. That left the cost of CBOB on various pipelines in the Chicago market as low as $1.67/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 Tom Kloza, tkloza@opisnet.com; Editing by Jeff Barber, jbarber@opisnet.com
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