Crude oil prices down despite Iran worries

Crude oil prices dropped Tuesday after weather forecasters said that the US Northeast will be warmer this week, reaching above average temperatures in some regions. The price for West Texas Intermediate Crude for March delivery was as much as $2 lower at one point during the day and closed down by $1.32 to $58.07 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. March contracts expired at the end of the session, and April contracts were trading at $58.85 per barrel.

Investors didn’t seem concerned with BBC revelations of the details of US contingency plans for air strikes on Iran, nor with continued Iranian insistence that it will not stop its uranium enrichment program ahead of a United Nations deadline on Wednesday. Also not seeming to have any effect on prices was the announcement that the US Department of Energy will begin to purchase oil meant to increase the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The DoE will start buying 50,000 barrels of oil per day beginning in March.

The price of heating oil was lower, as well, by 2.84 cents to $1.645 per gallon, but natural gas and gasoline prices were both higher. Gasoline added 0.38 cents to $1.6491 per gallon, while natural gas was up 8.20 cents to $7.585 per million British thermal units.