Crude futures fell away from all time-high settlements on Monday as
industry players took stock, using weaker equity markets and easing
geopolitical tensions as a trigger to ease long positions, brokers said.

At 10:57 GMT the December ICE Brent contract fell $1.43/barrel off
$90.63/b while December NYMEX WTI fell $1.64/b, off $94.25/b.

"The volatility of the current market makes this move insignificant," a
broker said. "The release of the Turkish soldiers and some credit issues have
helped the selling along its way."

On Sunday, the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) freed eight Turkish
soldiers it had taken hostage as Ankara's premier left for Washington to seek
concrete steps to crack down on the guerrillas.

Iraq said on Saturday it was ready to hunt down and arrest Kurdish
guerrilla leaders responsible for cross-border raids into Turkey in an effort
to avert a major incursion by the Turkish military.

Tensions between Turkey and Kurdish rebels have contributed to the recent
spike in oil prices as traders were concerned supplies from the oil-rich
Middle East would be disrupted if the crisis spilled over into the region.

Despite worries of a credit crunch and news that Charles Prince, the
Citigroup chairman, had retired as the world's largest bank posted massive
losses from the subprime mortgage crisis, the US dollar staged a small
fightback from its lows.

The dollar index rebounded from all-time lows as the greenback
strengthened against the euro and pound, and with lower European stock prices,
this has contributed in the weakening of the oil futures, brokers said.
Market players said today's sell off is not the start of a longer term
downturn in prices.

"There are some support levels to get through first and with the price
swings we've seen recently some people will view the dips as a buying
opportunity," a broker said.

ICE gasoil for November fell below $800/mt after reaching a record trade
of $807.25/mt in late Friday trading. Currently, the contract traded at
$798/mt, down $4.25/mt.

NYMEX products were off significantly in electronic trading on the CME
Globex system. December heating oil fell 4.83 cents/gallon to $2.5410/gal.
NYMEX RBOB was off 4.83 cents/gal to $2.3912/gal.

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