Petroleum futures were heading into midday down on light volumes Friday, with contracts trading just marginally above the daily lows established this morning.
February RBOB and ULSD along with March Brent have taken over the front-month position. With some slight contango going from January to February in the refined product contracts, the market is drifting back toward where the January levels had expired.
RBOB futures were under the most pressure this morning, with the February contract sliding below the $1.69 level. The low of $1.6871/gal is within a cent of the lows seen in mid-December with the lowest settle of $1.6809/gal for 2025 within reach for Friday’s trading.
The RBOB contract was trading at $1.6895/gal around noon ET, down 2.55cts. Cash markets also appear to be thinly traded as spot prices were moving with futures.
The same can be said about diesel, as the February contract was seeing slightly smaller day-to-day losses as the contract last traded at $2.1038/gal, a drop of 1.77cts. Diesel futures have been trading at some of the lowest levels since early June.
Crude oil futures are trending toward a third straight day of declines as March
Brent was barely holding onto the $60 handle after trading as low as $60.02/bbl this morning. West Texas Intermediate’s low of $56.60/bbl matches the low seen on Dec. 22, and the contract is a little more than $1 higher than the seasonal low. Heading into midday, front-month WTI was down 60cts at $56.82/bbl and March Brent was at $60.21/bbl, down 65cts.
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 Michael
Kelly, mkelly@opisnet.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
01-02-26 1235ET