Investing.com - Crude prices were slightly lower in early action on Tuesday, pulling back after rallying on worries that U.S. President Donald Trump may pull out of the Iran nuclear deal.
Investors now turned their attention to fresh data on U.S. commercial crude inventories to gauge the strength of demand in the world’s largest oil consumer and how fast output levels will continue to rise.
Industry group the American Petroleum Institute is due to release its weekly report at 4:30PM ET (2030GMT). Official data from the Energy Information Administration will be released Wednesday, amid forecasts for an oil-stock gain of around 1.2 million barrels.
New York-traded WTI crude futures shed 15 cents, or roughly 0.2%, to $68.42 a barrel by 4:05AM ET (0805GMT), after settling up 47 cents on Monday.
Meanwhile, Brent crude futures, the benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S., dipped 25 cents, or about 0.4%, to $74.42 a barrel.
The global benchmark jumped to its best level since late 2014 at $75.62 in the last session after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stepped up pressure on the United States to pull out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, presenting what he called evidence of a secret Iranian nuclear weapons program.
However, the trove of data did not contain new information that was not known to diplomats who negotiated the landmark Iran nuclear deal in 2015.
Netanyahu's remarks come less than two weeks before U.S. President Donald Trump must decide whether to continue suspending sanctions against Iran under that deal, or restore the penalties on one of the world's biggest oil producers.
The Trump administration has until May 12 to make a decision. If sanctions are reinstated, that could contribute to tighter global oil inventories.
In other energy trading, gasoline futures slumped around 0.5% to $2.119 a gallon, while heating oil dropped 0.4% to $2.141 a gallon.
Natural gas futures were a shade higher at $2.777 per million British thermal units.