WTI Dips to $80s on Reduced Middle East Risk


   
Barani Krishnan
DTN Refined Fuels Market Reporter

   SECAUCUS, NJ (DTN) -- Oil prices fell 7% Tuesday (3/10) morning, driving 
West Texas Intermediate crude to $80 bbl levels and North Sea Brent to the low 
$90s, after U.S. President Donald Trump suggested that the Iran war, now in its 
10th day, might be ending soon.

   "I think the war is very complete, pretty much," Trump said in a media 
interview on Monday (3/9), adding that U.S. and Israeli forces were "very far 
ahead of schedule" in their joint military campaign against Iran.

   U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Pentagon senior official Brad Cooper 
also told a press briefing on Tuesday that Iran's firepower appeared to be 
diminishing.

   But Iranian national security chief Ali Larijani limited the downside in oil 
prices by suggesting on the X platform that there will no safe passage on the 
Strait of Hormuz, the Middle East's busiest shipping lane for petroleum, until 
the attacks against Iran ceased.

   NYMEX WTI for April delivery was down $6.44 to $88.33 bbl, after a session 
low of $84.43. On Monday, it ran up all the way up, to a four-year high $119.48 
bbl, before settling just beneath $95.

   The ICE Brent contract for May fell $7.15 to $91.81 bbl, after sliding to 
$88.05 earlier. In the prior session, it shot up to $119.50 at one point before 
settling at under $99.

   Refined products also fell in value after Monday's rally that took NYMEX 
gasoline and ULSD futures to their loftiest levels since July 2022.

   Gasoline for April delivery slid $0.0581 to $2.7503 gallon, after a run to 
$3.2205 in the prior session. ULSD's front-month contract lost $0.0110 to trade 
at $3.5756, off the previous day's high of $4.4715.

   The U.S. Dollar Index was off 0.441 points to 98.73 against a basket of 
currencies.

   Since the outbreak of the war on February 28, the Middle East's biggest oil 
producers, led by Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, have reduced output or 
declared force majeure as Iran's effective blockade of the Hormuz led to 
storage constraints for crude in those countries.

   Finance ministers from the Group of Seven nations met Monday to discuss a 
potential release from their 1.2 billion bbl collective emergency reserves, 
saying necessary measures will be made according to market requirements.

   Middle East concerns aside, market participants are expected to be focused 
on U.S. oil inventory data for the week ended March 6, due after 4.30 p.m. ET 
from the American Petroleum Institute. It will be the first set of numbers on 
U.S. crude, gasoline and distillate stocks since the start of the war and is 
expected to provide the market a snapshot on the supply situation for U.S. 
refiners.




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