•Western crude futures benchmarks hit renewed 11-month highs Monday, building on the momentum gathered at the end of last week, market sources said Monday. "It's purely psychological," said a London-based broker. "The long positions are growing--everyone is frightened of going short and nobody wants to take a counter view to the rest of the market. It is essentially the same reasons as last week, refinery worries and concerns over North Sea production. There is also a very unsettled global situation at the moment."

•Support was provided last week with news of a shutdown in BP's CATS pipeline in the North Sea and a reduction of 40,000 b/d in Buzzard from North Sea production.

•The current momentum across crude benchmarks has led to surges in open interest, especially in NYMEX WTI. Last Wednesday total open interest in NYMEX's three crude contracts--physically delivered, financially settled and the e-mini--was 1,644,064 lots.

Updated: July 16, 2007