Crude oil futures were mostly down at midday Wednesday as traders focused on Thursday's meeting between U.S. and Iran over the Islamic Republic's nuclear enrichment program.

The NYMEX April West Texas Intermediate contract was down 28cts to $65.35/bbl at about 11:45 a.m. ET and the May WTI contract was 26cts lower at $65.28/bbl.

The ICE April Brent contract was off 7cts to $70.70/bbl and May Brent was 6cts lower at $70.52/bbl.

U.S. and Iranian officials are set to meet Thursday in Geneva for a third round of talks over Tehran's nuclear program. The U.S. has said it could attack Iran if no agreement is reached and President Trump in his State of the Union address on Tuesday said he would make peace where possible, but wouldn't hesitate to confront threats to the U.S.

OPEC+ is considering raising its output by 137,000 bpd in April, a move that would end a three-month pause in production increases. The eight OPEC+ producers--Saudi Arabia, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Iraq, Algeria and Oman--are scheduled to meet on March 1.

Separately, Saudi Arabia has activated a plan for a short-term oil output and export surge should a U.S. strike against Iran disrupt shipments of oil from the Middle East.

Diesel futures were sharply lower on forecasts of higher temperatures across much of the U.S. during the first week of March. The March ULSD contract was off 7.19cts to $2.615/gal and the April contract was 1.19cts lower at $2.5020/gal.

Gasoline futures were posting modest gains. The March RBOB contract was 1.31cts higher at $1.9845/gal and the April contract was up 0.88ct to $2.2385/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 Allegra Fradkin, afradkin@opisnet.com; Editing by Jeffrey Barber, jbarber@opisnet.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 25, 2026 12:25 ET (17:25 GMT)

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