Crude futures higher on Nigerian pipeline attacks

London (Platts)--8May2007

Global crude futures traded higher Tuesday morning, rebounding off the
lowest settlement for over a month, as further unrest in Nigeria pushed prices
higher.

At 1131 London time (1031 GMT) the June ICE Brent futures contract
changed hands at $64.96/barrel, up 53 cents. The June WTI contracts on NYMEX
and ICE were both higher by 10 cts at $61.57/b.

"Today the focus should turn to crude oil with the main input being the
renewed attacks by Nigerian militants on oil installations," Petromatrix said
in a report on Tuesday.

Nigeria's most high-profile armed group the Movement for the Emancipation
of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it destroyed three major pipelines early
Tuesday in the oil-rich south of the country.

"Fighters of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta
attacked and destroyed three major pipelines in Bayelsa state," the group's
spokesman said in an email message to the media.

The destruction of one of the pipelines, at Brass, resulted in an
immediate power outage at a facility run by Italian oil company Eni, the MEND
spokesman said.

There was no immediate confirmation from Eni or its subsidiary.

Crude loadings, however, are continuing at Eni's 200,000 b/d Brass
terminal despite the attacks, union and shipping officials said Tuesday.

On Monday, crude futures prices dropped to over one month lows but
rebounded at the end of the trading session with the front-month contracts on
ICE and NYMEX settling at their lowest levels since late March.

"WTI has been now through six consecutive days of losses making it the
longest losing streak in 2007, and the oil futures are now well inscribed in a
negative momentum," Petromatrix said.

The initial fall in prices came as the June/July NYMEX WTI spread came
under pressure as NYMEX floor local traders anticipated selling by commodity
indexes rolling long positions over to the second month. Further to this, news
that Valero had restarted the 97,400 b/d fluid catalytic cracker at its
185,000 b/d St. Charles, Louisiana refinery after a two-week outage took some
of the steam out of RBOB futures, the recent market driver.

June NYMEX RBOB futures on Tuesday morning were a mere 14 points higher
at $2.1910/gallon in early electronic trading on the CME Globex system. The
June heating oil futures, though, were 1.06 cts higher at $1.8135/gal. On ICE,
the May ICE gasosil futures contract reacted to the crude rally late Monday
and was trading $8.25/mt higher at $573.75/mt on Tuesday.

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