Oil Dips on Putin-U.S. Talks Amid Russia Sanctions


   
Barani Krishnan
DTN Refined Fuels Market Reporter

   SECAUCUS, NJ (DTN) -- Crude futures dipped Tuesday (12/2) as Russian 
President Vladimir Putin held talks in Moscow with U.S. representatives seeking 
to end the war in Ukraine.

   A successful outcome to the talks, led by U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and 
President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, could remove sanctions 
against Russian oil that would add to global oversupplies. But Putin also 
warned earlier in the day that he would also wage war, if necessary, against 
European nations that supported Ukraine in attacking Russian oil tankers and 
infrastructure.

   The NYMEX WTI contract for January delivery settled down $0.68 bbl at $58.64 
bbl. ICE Brent for February delivery retreated $0.76 to $62.43 bbl.

   Downstream, January RBOB gasoline futures softened $0.0380 to $1.8309  
gallon, and front-month ULSD futures dropped $0.0322 to $2.3078 gallon.

   The U.S. Dollar Index was little changed, down 0.037 points to 99.325 
against a basket of foreign currencies.

   Crude futures also came under pressure after Bloomberg reported that more 
than 180 million barrels of Russian oil were at sea at the end of November, up 
by 21% over the past three months.

   "It's going to be hard for this market to catch a break for long, with all 
the enigma over the Russian oil on water," said John Kildufff, partner at New 
York energy hedge fund Again Capital.

   The increasing volume of Russian oil at sea rekindled concerns of oversupply 
that had bogged the market down for months.

   Crude futures rose Monday (12/1) though after the Organization of the 
Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, collectively known as OPEC+, 
announced at the weekend they will honor a pledge made in November that they 
will not boost production in the first quarter of next year.

   Prior to that, OPEC+ made three upward adjustments of 137,000 bpd for 
October through December. Those increases came despite the organization itself 
estimating later that the market was probably in a surplus off 500,000 bpd by 
the third quarter of this year.




(c) Copyright 2025 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved.