IPE Brent rangebound in light trade with no market moving news

London (Platts)--26Jun2006

IPE Brent futures in London were rangebound Monday morning in thin
trading as the market was waiting for "headline trading" to push the market in
either direction.
At 1133 GMT (1033 London time) the August IPE Brent crude futures
contract was changing hands at $69.83/barrel, down 10 cents from Friday's
settle.
"It's very quiet this morning and the market is waiting for a headline to
move it. Fundamentally, for the time being, prices should be coming off," a
London-based broker said.
For the third trading day in a row, the front-month Brent contract
wandered above the $70/barrel mark but has not been able to remain above that
level. The last time the front-month Brent futures contract settled above
$70/barrel was on June 09, over eleven trading sessions ago.
It seems that the threat by Iran's oil minister, over the weekend, to use
oil as a weapon if the country's "interests are attacked", have had little
affect on crude prices.
Iranian government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham also told reporters
that, "there is no reason not to use devices for protecting our country's
interests, and these threats are directed at the ones who are bullying and
seeking to dominate."
But he stressed that oil "is not our preliminary device. We have
diplomatic means for dialogue and we encourage implementing peace.This issue
(oil) is the ultimate (weapon)." He added that there "is no need to bring up
such issues, and the conditions are good for a diplomatic solution."
The West suspects that Iran, which is the OPEC oil cartel's number two
exporter, is secretly trying to build nuclear weapons. Iran denies this and
insists its atomic program is purely for electricity generation.
In other news, two Filipino oil workers captured in restive southern
Nigeria last week were released on Sunday, a local government spokesman in the
area told AFP.
Unidentified armed men captured the two oil workers Tuesday while they
were working on a platform in Aker, near Port Harcourt, the capital of
oil-rich Rivers State. They are employed by Beaufort International under a
contract with the Norwegian oil services company Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS).
A group which has claimed a slew of previous abductions, the separatist
group Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), has denied being
behind the kidnapping.

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