| Friday, February 14, 2025 | 3:50 PM EST

Oil fell as a key market gauge signaled that supplies are ample and traders discounted US threats to Iran’s crude exports.

West Texas Intermediate’s front-month futures were trading at as little as 1 cent more per barrel than contracts for the next month out, down from a premium of $1.52 about a month ago. It’s the weakest the so-called prompt spread has been since November, when it turned negative in a bearish structure known as contango. WTI’s March futures slid to settle below $71 a barrel.

Oil earlier spiked as much as 1% after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox Business that the US will seek to slash Iranian oil exports — currently at around 1.6 million barrels a day — to 100,000 barrels a day. Crude then dropped amid doubts about the plan’s feasibility and continued concern that US President Donald Trump’s tariffs will hurt demand.

“The market still discounts the US’s ability to cut flows to 100,000 and further sees potential backfill from OPEC,” said Rebecca Babin, senior energy trader at CIBC Private Wealth Group. “Tariff headlines will continue to jar the market as traders try to evaluate impacts on demand.”

Oil markets this week have seen multiple bullish factors fall away, including waning geopolitical risk from Ukraine to Gaza. Still, in reports this week, the International Energy Agency and the US Energy Information Administration took an increasingly aligned view that the global oil market will now only see a small surplus this year.