London (Platts)--6Aug2007

Global crude futures continued Friday's cross market sell-off as mainly
"non-oil factors" seem to be dominating the current prices, traders said.
     However, a downgrading by Colorado State University of the number of
storms that it expects will form in the Atlantic this season also pressured
the WTI spreads.

     At 0959 GMT the September ICE Brent traded at $73.45/barrel, down
$1.30/b, to a one-month low. September NYMEX WTI and ICE WTI lost $1.60/b to
$73.88/b.

     "The price weakness is more related to non-oil factors at the moment," a
trader said. "It's just a continuation of Friday, with higher than average
volumes going through for a Monday morning," they added.

     On Friday the energy complex moved in line with equity and financial
markets, where for example, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down over 100
points and the US Dollar Index was down nearly 53 points at 80.18, poised to
challenge a level last seen in 1992.

     "The possibility of an oil price meltdown stemming from developments in
the stock and bond markets has been the only obviously bearish danger for oil
of late," PVM wrote in a report on Monday. Fundamentally, a decrease in risk
of hurricane disruption also weakened WTI spreads as well as the flat price, a
trader said.

     On Friday, the CSU hurricane team slightly reduced the number of storms
that it expects will form in the Atlantic this season from 17 to 15.

     CSU researchers Philip Klotzbach and William Gray are calling for a total
of 15 named storms for the entire season with eight becoming hurricanes and
four becoming intense hurricanes of Category 3 strength or above.

     "The reduction in potential hurricanes has shifted the WTI curve
structure significantly. On Friday the September-October WTI spread was around
+40 cents backwardated whilst now it's about +10," a trader noted.

     Amid the Middle East futures contracts, the October ICE Dubai contract
was at $68.49/b, down 51 cents/b, while the DME Oman contract was at $69.30/b,
down 30 cents/b.

     All product futures shifted lower. September front-month NYMEX RBOB
futures dipped for the first time below $2/gallon since mid-April. In a cross
market fall, the September contract was dragged down to a low of $1.9925/gal,
off by 3.65 cents to a level not seen since April 18, 2007.

     ICE gasoil futures fell to their lowest since July 2 this year, at
$629.25/mt, off by $11.50/mt, while the NYMEX heating oil contract traded 2.90
cents lower at $2.0050/gal, also its lowest in over a month.

--Jean-Luc Amos, jean-luc_amos@platts.com