NYMEX crude opened 5 cents higher as sentiment turns bullish

NYMEX crude opened 5 cents higher as sentiment turns bullish

New York (Platts)--26Oct2006

December crude futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange opened 5 cents
higher at $61.45/barrel Thursday as sentiment slowly turned more bullish in
the wake of Wednesday's US petroleum inventory data. Notification of a
reduction in November allocations by members of OPEC has helped put a floor in
prices.

"Even if the swings in stocks are not necessarily indicative of new
probable trends, they did take some power away from the idea of an ongoing
glut and put the OPEC production cuts into a stronger, more supportive
context," Tim Evans, energy analyst at CitiGroup, said in a report. "

Even more notable than the headline numbers in Wednesday's Energy
Information Administration report was the pace of demand growth.

"The level of total implied US demand hit its highest level for the year at
21.5 million b/d, and implied gasoline demand came in extremely strong at
above 9.5 million b/d" Kevin Norrish, energy analyst at Barclays Capital, said
in a report.

November unleaded gasoline opened 98 points lower at $1.5825/gal and
December RBOB opened 95 points lower at $1.59/gal ahead of Friday's contract
expiration.

November heating oil opened 40 points lower at $1.7350/gal.

--Linda Rafield, linda_rafield@platts.com

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