Crude futures stronger on Nigerian kidnappings

London (Platts)--3May2007

Global crude futures strengthened Wednesday as further kidnappings in
Nigeria highlighted once again the delicate situation in the oil rich region
of the Niger Delta.

The kidnappings outweighed the bearish news that ExxonMobil has shut a
115,000 b/d crude distillation unit in Singapore after a fire.

At 1117 London time (1017 GMT) the June ICE Brent futures contract
changed hands at $66.87/barrel, up 62 cents from Wednesday's settlement, the
lowest since April 19. The June NYMEX WTI futures rose 34 cts to $64.02/b and
June WTI futures on ICE were up 35 cts at $64.03/b.

""We're mainly up from the news coming out of Nigeria. There's been an
increase in the kidnappings recently and the recent Nigerian elections have
not changed anything," a trader said.

Two incidents in Nigeria on Thursday has heightened concern after members
of the Movement for Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) attacked Chevron's
Oloibiri Floating Storage and Offloading Vessel (FPSO) in the early hours of
Tuesday.

On Thursday unidentified assailants kidnapped several employees of
Italian energy group ENI who were working on a ship, the company said, and
also Nigerian militants kidnapped eleven workers after a gunfight at a local
construction site near Port Harcourt in the Niger Delta area, the South Korean
foreign ministry said.

ENI said there were 85 people on the ship anchored 90 kilometers (55
miles) from Port Harcourt, including 22 foreigners from several countries.

In the other incident, construction company officials present said the
shootout lasted for 40 minutes and three South Korean and eight Filipino
workers were kidnapped.

The hostage-taking in Nigeria negated news that a fire broke out at
ExxonMobil's 309,000 b/d refinery on Singapore's Jurong island in the early
hours of Thursday, the company said in a brief statement.

From the fire the company has shut it's 115,000 b/d crude distillation
unit and "will not be started up until it is safe to do so," the company said.
The other CDU, with a capacity of 185,000 b/d, continues to operate, it added.

Crude prices were up slightly as market players attempted to reverse the
lower prices seen Wednesday.

"The market has been higher recently and some people feel we should
return to those levels. There's been some buying overall to try and return
higher as well as some intermonth spread buying," a trader said.

Brent intermonth spreads for June/July were tighter by 9 cents at -43 cts
Thursday morning, returning to levels seen throughout most of April.

"I think the spread was oversold and people are now bringing it back to
what it should be," the trader said.

Amongst the product futures, May ICE gasoil futures traded at $590.00/mt,
up $5.25/mt. On NYMEX June heating oil futures were up by 0.96 cts at
$1.8622/gallon whilst the equivalent RBOB contract changed hands 0.76 cts
lower at $2.2250/gal.

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