•November NYMEX WTI futures moved above $85/b for the first time Monday, in European morning trading, as a flurry of buying pushed many oil futures prices into uncharted territory. The November contract hit a peak of $85.19/b at 10:05 GMT Monday, up $1.50 from Friday's record settlement as a continuation of Friday's session plus a bullish technical picture allowed a strong upward movement.

•OPEC has raised its estimates of world oil demand for 2007 and 2008 as well the predicted 'call' on its own crude supplies in the fourth quarter of this year, the group said Monday in its latest monthly oil market report. OPEC now expects demand to average 85.72 million b/d in 2007 and rise to 87.09 million b/d next year, both figures having been raised by 20,000 b/d from OPEC's previous monthly report.

•On the supply side, OPEC cut its estimate of non-OPEC production this year by 30,000 b/d to 50.29 million b/d on the back of downward revisions to Mexico, the UK, Brazil and Sudan. The corresponding figure for next year was left unchanged at 51.36 million b/d. The higher demand estimates and lower prediction for non-OPEC supply this year had a knock-on effect of raising the call on OPEC crude.

Updated: October 15, 2007