Crude futures above $63/bl as Brent loading program cut by 41%

London (Platts)--8Dec2006

Global crude futures, in particular ICE Brent, jumped above $63/barrel as
the Brent loading program for January showed a 41% fall compared to December,
brokers said.
At 1142 GMT, the January ICE Brent futures contract changed hands at
$63.68/barrel, up $1.11/barrel from Thursday's bearish settlement. Both
January NYMEX WTI and ICE WTI futures contracts traded 81 cents higher at
$63.30/barrel.
"Prices are purely up on the back of the cut in the Brent program. The
intermonth spreads have come in significantly too," a London based broker
said.
North Sea Brent Blend crude loadings for January are set to fall to
158,516 b/d from December's output level, market sources said Friday, down
41% December.
Trading sources said that the larger program in December was a major
factor in the reduction of output in January, while unconfirmed talk
production problems persist. "We have heard rumors of production problems but
it's not proving that easy to find out," said a North Sea trader.
Sources agreed that the news would at least consolidate the recent
uptrend in North Sea prices. "This news is clearly going to perpetuate the
Dated Brent strength and we're seeing that in the paper market already," said
one.
Futures prices fell significantly Thursday despite militants attacking
Eni's Brass terminal in Nigeria in the Bayelsa state of the Niger Delta. Four
workers were taken hostage in the latest violent incident that has plagued the
region, home to Nigeria's multi-billion-dollar oil industry.
On Friday, however, a spokesman for Eni's Agip upstream unit in Lagos
said that oil tankers were loading normally from the 200,000 b/d terminal.
Product futures were also trading higher with December ICE gasoil up
$8.75/mt to $556.00/mt. The January NYMEX heating oil contract changed hands 3
cents/gallon higher at $1.8088/gallon, whilst NYMEX RBOB futures traded at
$1.6435/gallon up 2.03/cents/gallon.
--Jean-Luc Amos, jean-luc_amos@platts.com
--Joel Hanley, joel_hanley@platts.com

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