London (Platts)--11Mar2008

Major crude futures benchmarks continued to explore uncharted territory
Tuesday, a US dollar weakness allowed investors to continue buying into
dollar-based commodities, such as oil, and ignore signs of slowing demand,
brokers said.

Front-month ICE Brent futures traded above $105/barrel to an all-time
high of $105.40/b, up $1.26/b, but then retreated to just above the $105/b
mark at 10:59 GMT.

NYMEX WTI rose to a record $109.20/b, up $1.30/b, before falling to
$108.85/b.

"The dollar is getting hammered," one London-based broker said. "It's all
about the dollar this morning."

The US Dollar Index slumped in early morning trading, moving to around
72.5 points as the euro moved to a new high against the US greenback of
$1.5499.

The energy complex has rallied significantly in recent sessions as funds
continue to invest heavily, ignoring signs of slowing demand.

Only a few hours ago the International Energy Agency trimmed its
estimates of world oil demand and non-OPEC oil supply for 2008 by around
100,000 b/d each.

In its latest monthly report, the Paris-based IEA said it now expected
world oil demand to average 87.54 million b/d, 80,000 b/d less than it had
previously predicted.

The revised outlook follows mild weather in January and a "carry-through"
of weaker demand growth from the fourth quarter of last year, the IEA said.

The mild weather has not dampened NYMEX heating oil or ICE gasoil prices,
which hit further highs Tuesday.

In early electronic trading the March ICE gasoil contract, due to expire
Wednesday, traded at an all-time high of $978.75/mt, up $1.75/mt from Monday's
settle.

April NYMEX heating oil neared the $3/gallon level trading on the CME
Globex platform, hitting $2.9975/gal, up 2.41 cents from Monday.

RBOB futures continued to lag despite the US driving season drawing
nearer, and the April contract moved 81 points higher to $2.7230/gal.
--Jean-Luc Amos, jean-luc_amos@platts.com