London (Platts)--27Jul2007

Crude futures rebounded Friday primarily on the back of some dip buying,
brokers said. Late Thursday, the energy complex was pulled lower by panic
selling on stock markets around the world, negating most of the gains seen
earlier after the release of bullish US crude stocks data.

     At 11:04 GMT, the September ICE Brent futures contract was up by 28 cents
at $75.46/barrel. The September WTI contracts on both NYMEX and ICE changed
hands at $75.21/b, up 26 cents.

     "This is a great opportunity to buy the dip after yesterday's selloff,"
one London-based broker said.

     Late in the session on Thursday, the energy complex fell significantly
amid large falls on stock markets around the world triggered by fears of a
credit crunch caused by the weakening US housing market. The Dow Jones
industrial average ended the session 311.5 points lower, and at one point had
been as much as 400 points down.

     The September contracts on ICE and NYMEX lost around $2/b in value from
the intra-day high, ending down by $1/b compared to Wednesday's settlement. In
early Thursday trading, buying continued on the back of a 1.4 million barrel
drop in Cushing stocks, according to the Energy Information Administration,
sending inventories to their lowest level since the week ending February 9.

     Beyond this, little fundamental news has been seen and market players
expect a typical Friday of short-covering ahead of the weekend. 

     "With spreads not changing very much you can tell that there's little
fundamental news driving this upswing and it seems like a pretty normal Friday
for the time being," a broker said.

     Middle East futures both traded higher with September ICE Dubai at
$69.60/b, up 17 cents, while the DME OMAN contract was 65 cents higher at
$71.00/b.

     ICE gasoil futures were significantly weaker, dropping in to line with
the rest of the complex. The August contract was pegged at $641.75/mt, down
$14.50/mt. 

     On NYMEX, August heating oil moved up to $2.0360/gallon, up 38 points and
RBOB was 75 points higher at $2.0834/gal. 

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