•Global crude futures were seen slightly bullish on Wednesday despite increasing expectations that Iran and the UK can diplomatically resolve the current standoff involving 15 detained British sailors. At 11:34 London time, the May ICE Brent futures contract was up 31 cents at $68.12/barrel.

•"Iran will remain the key directional input in front of the upcoming long Easter weekend...The entire energy complex was kept under pressure yesterday. Time spreads were weaker and the cracks improved slightly only due to crude's greater downward movement," analysts at Petromatrix said in a report.

•May RBOB futures were slashed during Tuesday trading, falling by more than $5/gal in intra-day trading ahead of latest US petroleum inventory data, due to be released on Wednesday by the US EIA and API. The announcement, normally eagerly awaited by market participants, was seen to be of less significance this week. "Iran is still definitely dominating market prices and movements at the moment," a London-based broker said.

Updated: April 4, 2007