London (Platts)--12Sep2008

Global crude futures were trading at a premium to Thursday's settle in
Europe Friday morning, with market participants on hurricane watch as Ike
continues to tear through the Gulf of Mexico.

At 10:31 GMT, front-month October ICE Brent futures were trading at
$98.70/barrel, up $1.06 from Thursday's close, while the October light, sweet
crude contract on the NYMEX remained comfortably over the $100/b mark,
changing hands at $102.08/b, a gain of $1.21.

According to the US National Hurricane Center, Ike, which is currently a
Category 2 hurricane, is expected to strengthen before making landfall along
the Texas coast late Friday or early Saturday, near Galveston, close to the
major refining centers of Texas City and Houston.

However, market participants may be deterred from investing too heavily
in the "Ike premium," considering how quickly the hurricane premium was eroded
with Gustav a fortnight ago.

"We expect Friday's session to end on a positive note. However, the
markets could open sharply lower on Monday if Hurricane Ike, similar to Gustav
before it, ends up being 'bust'," energy analyst Edward Meir said in a report.

Global crude futures were given additional support by the slightly weaker
dollar, traders said. The ICE dollar index was a shade off yesterday's highs,
trading at 79.459.

In the product markets, the new front-month ICE gasoil contract traded at
$935.50/mt, a $6.75 gain on the overnight settle. Front-month RBOB continued
to climb, trading at $2.8000/gallon, a 5.1 cent gain on the overnight settle,
having gained best part of 10 cents/gal from the previous session. Heating oil
also strengthened, trading at $2.9328/gal, a 1.7 cent gain.
--George Johnson, George_Johnson@Platts.com