Crude oil prices will close 2023 with a yearly loss, even though prices have spent most of the last trading day in positive ground. The front-month West Texas Intermediate crude contract settled at $80.26/bbl on the final day of 2022 action, and it looks like a drop of at least $8/bbl will be calculated when the final settlement occurs at this afternoon at 2:30 p.m.

Very light action was seen for crude oil benchmarks. Gains of 50-70cts/bbl early in the day gave way to more modest increases of 10-30cts/bbl at midday.

February WTI was ahead just 15cts/bbl at $71.92/bbl while March Brent crude commanded a price of $77.38/bbl, reflecting a gain of 23cts/bbl on the day.

Refined products were higher but there was noticeable reluctance in chasing higher offers. New England and the Middle Atlantic have yet to experience real winter weather and the 8-14 day weather forecast has temperatures near normal.

Accordingly, ULSD futures aren't getting much traction with January contracts up 1.89cts/gal to $2.5752/gal while February has added 1.02cts/gal to $2.5505/gal.

Gasoline caught some bids. The U.S. Energy Information Administration numbers released for final October assessments suggested a small renaissance in gasoline demand. During the month, weekly estimates suggested gasoline demand around 8.87-million b/d but the number published today was 9.094-million b/d, representing the highest October demand since 2019.

Most gasoline traders are looking forward and figuring that at least one of the next two weeks may see gasoline demand barely above 8-million b/d. With crude and feedstock processing now over 17-million b/d, refiners and blenders may have 10-million b/d of generated product in a market that finds consumption 2-million b/d lower. The good news for Gulf Coast refiners is that export demand continues to be one or two cargoes per day above the rate of imports.

January RBOB goes off the board today and its final throes are seeing prices up 3.2cts/gal at $2.1172/gal. The February contract was ahead 2.93cts/gal at $2.129/gal.

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 Tom Kloza, tkloza@opisnet.com; Editing by Steve Cronin, scronin@opisnet.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 29, 2023 12:26 ET (17:26 GMT)