Crude weakens in thin volumes, falling back from Friday's gains

London (Platts)--18Dec2006

Global crude futures weakened slightly Monday, retreating from gains
made Friday, as a result of profit taking by banks, broking sources said
Monday.
Friday trading saw strong gains near the end of the session after the
latest attack on an oil facility in Nigeria and the closure of the Houston,
Calcasieu and Sabine shipping channels in the US.
At 1105 GMT the front-month February ICE Brent futures contract changed
hands at $63.19/barrel, down 30 cents/barrel from Friday's close. NYMEX and
ICE WTI futures contracts were seen down by 26 cents/barrel and 23
cents/barrels at $63.17/barrel and $63.20/barrel, respectively.
"The market is very quiet at the moment ahead of Christmas with only low
volumes traded," a London-based broker said. "However, some Brent buying by
funds took place as banks were selling off crude futures to take profits. It
seems as if funds are trying to weaken the gasoil crack as they were also
selling off ICE gas oil futures this morning," the broker added.
At 1105 London time the ICE gasoil crack to ICE Brent was seen at
$10.20/barrel, down more than 40 cents/barrel from Friday's close.
Despite the slight decrease in futures prices Monday, sentiment still
remains bullish in line with the ongoing closure of the Houston, Calcasieu and
Sabine shipping channels in the US due to fog, which is likely to
affect import levels in next week's US petroleum data.
Non-commercials liquidated 14,856 crude futures and option contracts on
NYMEX for the week ending December 12, according to data released Friday by
the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Non-commercials were long 36,379 contracts of crude futures. The period
covered by the report occurred just ahead of OPEC's meeting in Abuja, Nigeria,
and the January option expiration, both of which may have affected traders'
decisions to lighten positions.
--Verena Peternell, verena_peternell@platts.com

For more news, request a free trial to Platts Futures & Derivatives Review at
http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/index.xml?story