Crude futures weaker on thin trading activity

London (Platts)--19Dec2006

Global crude futures headed further south on Tuesday due to lack of
trading activity and bearish sentiment in the market. At 1134 GMT, February
ICE Brent futurs contract changed hands at $61.63/barrel, down 51 cents/barrel
from Monday's close. NYMEX WTI was seen down by 34 cents/barrel to
$61.87/barrel, while the new front-month February ICE WTI lost 37 cents/barrel
to $62.42/barrel.
"The market is just very quiet, with the ongoing mild weather in the
Atlantic weighing on sentiment. I expect it to go on like that until the end
of the holiday season. It looks as if the crude market is trying to rebound
but it does not seems to get much higher," a London-based broker said.
"Trading is furthermore meagre ahead of the next US stats annoucement
tomorrow. I guess the market might welcome some further decline in US crude
stocks as they are currently so high anyway to bring some support to prices,"
the broker added.
Product prices were also weaker in line with crude losses, with ICE
gasoil futures declining by $8.75/mt to $535/mt on Tuesday. On NYMEX, January
heating oil futures traded 0.24 cents lower at $1.7183/gallon, whilst the RBOB
contract was down by 1.59 cents to $1.659/gallon.
Meanwhile, the Houston Ship Channel reopened to traffic late Monday night
local time, with the lifting of the dense fog that had limited the waterway to
only tug and barge towing earlier in the day. "It has opened to one-way or
inbound traffic," a ship dispatcher for the Houston Pilots said early Tuesday
morning.
Some 30 ships had been boarded or were fixed to be boarded, he said. The
channel was expected to allow resumption of two-way traffic once the day
breaks, sometime between 600 and 900 hours Tuesday, the source added.
The key waterway, used to deliver imported crude to refineries in the US
Gulf of Mexico area, has been intermittently closed and reopened since
November 17.
--Verena Peternell, verena_peternell@platts.com

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