DTN Oil Update
Oil Steadies as Traders Assess Higher Flows, Export Bans
VIENNA (DTN) -- Oil and product futures were mixed in a volatile morning session Thursday, with crude benchmarks advancing 1.5-2%, while ULSD's new front-month contract slipped following Wednesday's rally.
By 9:00 a.m. EDT, ICE Brent for December delivery was up $1.77 to trade near $99.80 bbl, and NYMEX WTI for November delivery rose $0.67 to $91.09 bbl.
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Downstream, NYMEX ULSD for November delivery retreated $0.1234 to $4.5647 gallon, while front-month RBOB futures edged higher $0.0088 to $3.2693 gallon.
The U.S. Dollar Index strengthened by 0.365 points to 101.555 against a basket of foreign currencies, having reached a 10-month high 101.755 earlier in the session.
A tightening global fuels market has been supporting the oil complex, outweighing resurging crude exports from the Middle East. To secure domestic supply and combat surging prices, more and more countries have been implementing, extending or at least considering refined product export bans, which added to fuel supply woes. Russia has recently extended its existing diesel export ban until the end of October, and reports on Thursday suggested that China had suspended all fuel exports for at least the first week of this month.
The U.S. administration has also been floating the possibility of a temporary ban on diesel exports, downplaying industry warnings about the cascading effects on supply and prices of other refined fuels. On Thursday, Reuters reported that the Trump administration urged European Union countries to release their emergency diesel stocks or face a U.S. export ban.
In May 2025, the last month for which Eurostat has provided a detailed breakdown of emergency oil and product reserves, the EU sat on around 280 million bbl of strategic diesel reserves, with more than a third of volumes situated in Germany and France. Data from September 2026 showed that total strategic reserves were still high, as European countries have generally been slow to fulfill their IEA commitment.
Diesel inventories in the U.S., meanwhile, have fallen to their lowest seasonal level on record. The U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday reported that nationwide stockpiles of distillate fuel oil dropped to 105.2 million bbl last week, down nearly 15% year-on-year. On the East Coast, diesel and heating oil reserves are lagging year-ago levels by close to 29%.
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