Refined products slide as market shrugs off fresh Iran sanctions

RBOB and ULSD futures gave back last week's multi-month highs even as Washington rolled out new pressure on Tehran — proof that the fuels complex is trading its own fundamentals more than headline risk right now.

Diesel led the pullback, with ULSD futures down roughly 5% and around 11 cents on the day, while RBOB slipped 6-8 cents as crude eased on reassessed Middle East risk; retail gasoline nonetheless sits near $4.10-4.18/gal nationally, still elevated versus a month ago. On policy, EPA's delay of the biofuel compliance deadline hammered ethanol (RIN) credit prices to four-month lows, while Nigerian seaborne product exports — boosted by the Dangote refinery — continue reshaping global supply flows amid constrained output elsewhere. Overseas, a drone strike set Russia's Afipsky refinery ablaze and Kazakhstan's Atyrau refinery also caught fire, adding to the drumbeat of Russian refining disruptions that has underpinned distillate cracks.