•Global crude futures recovered in Thursday morning trading from the strong selling activity seen Wednesday following the release of the EIA's weekly US oil data. Heating oil and gasoil futures were the market makers in early Thursday trading on the back of strong consumer buying and healthy development of the gasoil and heating oil cracks, sources said. The ongoing strike by Nigerian oil workers, which is threatening to disrupt Nigerian crude exports, also provided some support.

•At 11:45 London time, August ICE Brent was up 66 cents to $71.08/b, while August NYMEX WTI gained 74 cents to $69.60/b, narrowing Brent's premium above WTI to $1.48/b, the lowest since the end of March.

•"ICE Brent spreads are weakening and gasoil spreads are rallying, so cracks are higher," a trader said. "There is strong Argentinian demand for heating oil due to a severe winter as well as cargoes heading to West Africa and Asia." Low refinery yields in the US also contributed to the rally, he added.

•July NYMEX heating oil was up 3.06 cents to $2.0645/gal, while July ICE gasoil gained $16.75 to $633.75. "As consumer demand is so strong on exchanges and OTC markets, it looks like consumers may have waited too long to get their hedging done," a broker said.

Updated: June 21, 2007