Brent oil Feb futures prices little changed up at $71.97 a barrel on London based ICE Futures Europe exchange on Tuesday morning. WTI oil futures prices for Jan delivery opened in green at $68.22 a barrel on NYMEX during Asian hours today morning. Both the benchmarks prices little change on Monday. Brent premium over WTI narrowed down to $3.73 a barrel during yesterday’s session.
Crude oil benchmark futures price indicators are moving flat as speculators are sitting at fence, looking for clues. On the fundamentals side, China’s November factory numbers indicated boosting oil demand. Prospectus of U.S Fed unlikely to cut interest rate underpinned positive sentiment. All eyes on OPEC+ meet on 5th. Traders attention is on potential delay of planned production hike. Strong greenback is pressing oil complex. A ceasefire agreement appeared increasingly fragile that keep geopolitical risk increasing. API numbers are due later today followed by eia confirmations that may spur some volatility in the market.