New York (Platts)--31Jul2009

NYMEX September crude futures on CME's Globex system were 20 cents higher
Friday at $67.14/barrel with a soft tone to the US dollar and firmer equity
futures steadying oil markets.

September Brent on ICE was 25 cents lower at $69.85/barrel, narrowing the
premium to the NYMEX light sweet contract. The narrowing of the WTI/Brent
spread was a function of the contango at the front of the NYMEX crude curve
tightening. September/October crude on NYMEX traded in to a high of minus
$1.80/b after settling the previous session at minus $1.98/b.

Markets were biding their time ahead of the release of US second-quarter
GDP figures. Consensus estimates project a decline of 1.7%. S&P, like Platts,
part of the McGraw-Hill Companies, was looking for a 2% contraction in the US
economy.

The US Dollar Index on ICE was 26 points lower at 79.023, off the
intra-session low of 78.902.

"The US dollar is trading with a modestly softer bias ahead of the first
look at Q2 US GDP and as the month-end is hand," foreign exchange analysts at
Brown Brothers Harriman, said in a report. "There are always conflicting
forces at month-end with re-balancing and hedge adjustments and it is
difficult to have much confidence in the ultimate impact."
--Linda Rafield, linda_rafield@platts.com