London (Platts)--14Jul2008

Global crude futures were lower in European morning trading Monday,
following the announcement by the US Treasury that troubled US mortgage giants
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae would receive emergency credit lines.

At 1034 GMT, front-month August ICE Brent futures were trading at
$143.45/barrel, down $1.04/b from Friday's close, while the front-month NYMEX
light sweet crude contract traded at $143.87/b, down $1.21/b.

The US Treasury's emergency credit line to the two US mortgage providers,
which guarantee approximately 50% of US home loans, eased investor fears that
have seen the companies' share prices collapse over the past few months amid
concerns over their mortgage holdings.

"Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae appear to be having an impact in the oil
markets. Equities are are very much inter-linked with commodities nowadays," a
London based trader said.

"Much of the interest we saw last week may have come from the equities
market, now with the situation with Freddie and Fannie, this may be the
reverse effect, namely, they're putting their money out of commodities and
back in to equities," he said.

The announcement also impacted the dollar. "The dollar has gained about
one euro on the story, and there have been sharp gains in the Asian equities
and US stock futures as well. Not surprisingly, energy markets are under
pressure, with crude prices off by about $2/b at one point in Asian trading",
MF Global energy analyst Edward Meir said in a report.

In the product markets, front-month ICE gasoil futures was trading at
$1,304.25/mt, down $21 from Friday's close. NYMEX heating oil also followed
the downward trend, trading at $4.0475/gallon, 2.91 cents lower.