WTI crude for February delivery, which expires tomorrow, fell as much as 51 cents to $95.05 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $95.07 at 9 a.m. London time. The more active March contract was down 46 cents at $95.58. Front-month futures rose 7 cents on Jan. 18 to the highest close since Sept. 17.
The average volume of all contracts was 22 percent below the 100-day average. Floor trading will be closed today for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Brent for March settlement on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange dropped as much as 38 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $111.51 a barrel. The average volume of all contracts traded was 6 percent below the 100-day average. The European benchmark crude was at a premium of $16 to WTI futures for the same month. The gap was $15.16 on Jan. 17, the narrowest since July 24.