Crude oil contracts rebounded by midday Friday, partially recouping the previous day's sharp losses, after senior Iran officials refused to end enrichment of nuclear fuels in talks with their U.S. counterparts.
At noon ET, March NYMEX West Texas Intermediate was up around 70cts to $64/bbl and April WTI was also 70cts higher at $63.75/bbl.
London-based April Brent was up by 85cts to about $68.40/bbl and May Brent was 80cts higher to $67.80/bbl.
Both oil benchmarks finished almost $2 lower on Thursday on signs of easing supply risks ahead of the U.S.-Iran talks and news that Washington and Moscow would resume high-level military dialogue.
For the week, both WTI and Brent are on track to close out about $1 lower.
On Friday, Tehran stuck to its refusal to end its nuclear enrichment works in talks with U.S. officials but signaled a willingness to keep working toward a diplomatic solution that could head off an American strike.
In refined products, March RBOB was 3.05cts higher to $1.9575/gal and April RBOB was up by 2.5cts to $2.1735/gal. March ULSD was 3.55cts higher to $2.4285/gal and April ULSD was up by 2.4cts to $2.3545/gal.
A prolonged cold spell affecting a large part of the U.S. including the Northeast has increased heating oil consumption for space heating and power generation. Arctic blasts that started in late January also lingered in the Northeast residential market, which accounts for 80% of the U.S. heating oil demand.
In the spot market, Pacific Northwest sub-octane physical gasoline jumped about 14cts following a sharply higher trade. Still, PNW gasoline was priced at a 40ct/gal discount compared to San Francisco CARBOB--the priciest cash gasoline in the U.S.
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
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
02-06-26 1246ET
