London (Platts)--17Jul2007

Global crude futures fell Tuesday morning as market players reacted to
the massive 10 cent drop in NYMEX RBOB futures seen during Monday's session.

     Some profit-taking as well as a failure for the, now expired, ICE
front-month Brent contract to breach the all-time high of $78.65/barrel, also
weighed down on prices, brokers said.

     At 09:36 GMT the new front-month September ICE Brent futures contract was
down 76 cents at $75.35/b. The August WTI futures contracts on NYMEX and ICE
traded 17 cents lower at $73.98/b.

     "Despite yesterday's pullback prices remain very well supported, helped
by tightening fundamentals and strong market sentiment," a report by Barclays
Capital said.

     The energy complex moved in many directions on Monday. ICE Brent futures
fell while NYMEX WTI futures gained ground on refinery restart news.

     BP's 410,000 b/d Whiting, Indiana brought back its largest of three crude
distillation units while ExxonMobil's 348,000 b/d Beaumont, Texas refinery
also brought a CDU back on line.

     This news triggered a massive sell-off in product futures. The August
NYMEX RBOB contract settled just under 10 cents lower as the refinery restarts
prompted a selloff in the crack spreads.

     The refinery restarts occurred while non-commercials were holding their
largest long position in RBOB futures ever. Non-commercials were long 45,029
contracts of RBOB futures.

     While RBOB was undergoing a washout to the downside, crude was holding
fast to the $74/b as the market started to price in a decline in crude
inventories.

     As analysts at PVM noted, with regard to the BP refinery restart, "[it]
"is a big relief for overstocked Cushing, and WTI reacted accordingly making
considerable ground on Brent." Middle East futures were both lower with the
September ICE Dubai contract down 65 cents at $68.98/b and the DME Oman
contract for the same month at $69.91/b, weaker by 44 cents.

     Product futures were mixed. August ICE gasoil futures regained lost
ground to the complex by trading $12.75/mt lower at $644.75/mt. However, US
products recovered from the heavy losses incurred on Monday. August NYMEX
heating oil futures were 44 points higher at $2.0600/gallon, steadying the 5
cent loss on Monday. RBOB futures for August were 74 points higher at
$2.1336/gal.

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