MW Oil prices steady after fall to 6-month lows on tariff worries, OPEC+ supply

By William Watts

Oil futures were little changed early Thursday, attempting to find their footing after ending the previous session at six-month lows on fears global trade tensions will undercut demand and as traders prepared for an increase in supply from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies next month.

Price moves

-- West Texas Intermediate crude CL00 for April delivery CL.1 CLJ25 was unchanged at $66.31 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

-- May Brent crude BRN00 BRNK25, the global benchmark, was up 7 cents, or 0.1%, at $69.37 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe.

-- Back on Nymex, April gasoline RBJ25 was down 0.4% at $2.129 a gallon, while April heating oil HOJ25 rose 0.3% to $2.247 a gallon.

-- April natural gas NGJ25 dropped 1.6% to $4.378 per million British thermal units.

Market drivers

WTI and Brent were consolidating after dropping sharply in the Wednesday session to end at their lowest since Sept. 10.

"Perhaps the drop was the result of concerns about tariffs hurting global oil demand and/or a response to the larger-than-expected US crude oil inventories for last week," Charalampos Pissouros, senior market analyst at XM, said in a note.

Oil did see a bounce after the Trump administration announced it would pause tariffs on autos from Mexico and Canada for a month, "but the uncertainty about the US's trade policy and a rising supply outlook are likely to keep the gains in check," the analyst wrote.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, together known as OPEC+, announced earlier this week that they would proceed with plans to begin unwinding production curbs in April, which is also weighing on prices. Analysts had widely expected a further delay.

Data from the Energy Information Administration on Wednesday showed that U.S. commercial crude inventories climbed by 3.6 million barrels for the week that ended Feb. 28.

The data were expected to show a rise of 1.3 million barrels on average, according to analysts surveyed by Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights. Late Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute reported a crude inventory fall of 1.46 million barrels, according to a source citing the data.

-William Watts

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March 06, 2025 07:07 ET (12:07 GMT)

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