Oil futures gave up early gains to finish with a loss on Tuesday, pressured after Bloomberg reported that a U.S. senator may propose a plan to impose a federal surtax on certain oil companies in a move to curb inflation. Natural-gas prices, meanwhile, settled at their lowest in five weeks as full repairs to a damaged Freeport LNG terminal isn’t expected until later this year. The Freeport LNG news is “a near-term headwind for U.S. natgas prices as it will add an estimated 2.0 [billion cubic feet] of supply to our domestic market until the facility resumes operations at full strength later in the year,” said Tyler Richey, co-editor at Sevens Report Research. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery fell $2, or nearly 1.7%, to settle at $118.93 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after trading as high as $123.68. July natural gas settled at $7.189 per million British thermal units, down $1.42, or 16.5%.
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