London (Platts)--29May2007

ICE Brent crude futures were rangebound Tuesday, after the bank holiday
weekend, amid thin trading volumes, brokers said. On the other side of the
Atlantic, NYMEX WTI futures were catching up with Monday's fall in ICE Brent
prices, restoring the WTI-Brent spread to levels seen on Friday.
     At 10:26 GMT, the July ICE Brent futures contract changed hands at
$69.66/barrel, down 5 cents from Monday's settlement. The July NYMEX WTI
futures contract traded at $64.37/b down 83 cents from Friday's settlement.
     The ICE WTI contract was down 11 cents at $64.35/b.
     On Monday, a UK and US public holiday reduced volumes significantly and
also the NYMEX open outcry floor was closed, therefore no settlement price was
issued. However on ICE, a purely electronic trading platform, settlement
prices were issued at 18:30 GMT, hence the current difference in price
changes, brokers said.
     On Monday, July ICE Brent futures fell 99 cents as little news,
especially from current market-movers Nigeria, was seen, brokers said.
     "It's a very quiet start to the week," a London-based broker said. "The
market has been strong on little news so it looks like a bit of a sell-off
that we're seeing and saw yesterday." The current WTI-Brent spread for the
July contracts was pegged at minus $5.30/b, up 14 cents from Friday's settle.
     Part of the reason for the widening of the WTI-Brent spread has been
militant attacks on Nigerian oil infrastructure, as well as a host of
kidnappings of oil workers. From this, some crude oil production has been
shut-in adding to the Brent premium.
     However, after a quiet weekend, the spread has remained relatively
unchanged.
     "As of this writing, the days to the presidential inauguration did not
bring further supply disruption in Nigeria and the oil unions called off their
strike after receiving a 15 % pay increase," Petromatrix said in a report on
Tuesday.
     "With no fundamental changes to the stance of militants and the
government, the Nigerian risk can not be written off but we are moving from a
specific time risk (presidential pass-over) to a more general country risk,"
they added. On the product side, June ICE gasoil futures traded $3/mt higher
at $600.25/mt. The NYMEX heating oil contract changed hands at $1.9165/gallon,
down 2.26 cents from Friday, while the RBOB contract also fell, to
$2.3875/gal, down 1.62 cents.
--Jean-Luc Amos, jean-luc_amos@platts.com