London (Platts)--1Jun2007

Global crude futures stabilized on Friday, following a volatile trading
session on Thursday, triggered by the latest US inventory data published by
the US Energy Information Administration.
     With commercial crude stocks dropping by an unexpected 2 million barrels,
global crude futures shot up as a reaction, followed by an even quicker
decline. At the end of Thursday trading, however, ICE Brent as well as NYMEX
WTI managed to regain some territory.
     At 1035 London time, the front-month July ICE Brent futures contract was
trading at $67.91/b, down 13 cts/b on the day. In the US, the July NYMEX WTI
contract climbed above its Thursday's settlement price, gaining 2 cents to
$64.03/b, reducing Brent's premium over WTI to below $3.90/b, the lowest value
since the beginning of May.
     "Prices were down on stats and up on ongoing Nigeria issue," a
London-based broker said.
     Shell has shut another 77,000 b/d of crude production after it discovered
a leak in a major pipeline, a company spokesman said Thursday. The leak on the
Nembe Pipeline in Bayelsa state in the Niger Delta was discovered last week
and Shell was trying to gain access to repair the damage, the spokesman said. 
     The rollercoaster ride on Thursday was triggered by ambiguous US stock
data, which failed to give a clear signal to the market, analysts said.
     "We found the DOE weekly statistics indecisive. Half of the 2 million
barrels crude oil stock draw was in Padd5 (West Coast and Alaska). If crude
imports were down, they are on the 4 week average +361 million b/d compared to
last year and with some oil-afloat stocks not showing in the statistics the
crude oil balances are in even better shape than last year," analysts in a
Petromatrix report said on Friday.
     Apart from the crude draw, EIA data showed a 1.3 million barrel build in
gasoline stocks, while distillate inventories rose 100,000 barrels. However,
refinery utilization remained unchanged, in contrast to the expectations for
an 0.4% increase.
     In other news, in early Friday Asian trading, the new Dubai Mercantile
Exchange Oman futures contract was launched, adding competition to the ICE
Middle East sour crude Dubai contract, which started trading 10 days ago. At
1038 London time, the August DME Oman contract traded at $64.06/b, while the
August ICE Dubai was seen at $63.67/b, down 35 cents.
     Product futures were mixed, with June ICE gasoil up $2 to $590/mt, while
Us product futures lost ground. 
     The new front-month July heating oil and RBOB futures contracts were down
0.48 cents and 0.02 cents to $1.8783/gallon and $2.2030/gallon, respectively.
-- Verena Peternell; verena_peternell@platts.com