London (Platts)--17Mar2009

Global crude futures were showing mixed reactions Tuesday against the
backdrop of a weak dollar. Crude for April delivery held on to late Monday's
gains, when a rally reversed earlier losses related to OPEC's decision to keep
its quota unchanged. Other maturities were range-bound, as was the ICE Brent
contract.

By 1208 GMT, NYMEX light, sweet crude for April delivery traded 0.87
cents higher on the day at $47.12/barrel, while the new ICE Brent front-month
contract for May delivery was 33 cents lower at $46.13/b, after touching
$47.20/b earlier in the session.

The ICE US dollar index breached the 87 point mark in volatile trading,
adding 0.21 points to 87.15.

Both crude markers closed the previous session about $3/b above their
intra-day lows, as a short-lived rally in equities brought the Dow Jones index
briefly to 7,400 points, though it then fell back to 7,217 points. This set a
lower tone for most European and Asian stock markets, except for Tokyo's
Nikkei index.

"Volumes are very thin, movements are purely technical, the dollar was
very weak yesterday," a broker said, citing the forthcoming expiry of WTI
options as additional factor.

"The market has been in a sideways range for most of the year. We are
very close to the top of that range. But for the range to break, we need to
see a fundamental factor," another source said.

Commenting on fundamentals, analyst Harry Tchilinguirian at BNP Paribas
said while OPEC's implemented output cut would impact the market with a
logistical time-lag, "the very weak economic outlook, and low utilization
rates in refining, suggests that bringing down days of forward demand cover
will take some time, and bullish sentiment can see some bearish reversals."

Analyst Olivier Jakob at Petromatrix warned that trading oil on the back
of equities meant exposure to the time difference between the close of both
exchanges. "The ability of equities to hold on to the gains of last week will
be crucial to WTI being able to hold the $45-$50/b range," he said in his
daily note.

In Jakob's view, demand across the petroleum complex was not yet strong
enough to follow the correlation with equities, apart from WTI.

"The product supply and demand is being capped by a glut of distillate
stocks that is really calling for refinery run cuts, and as WTI tries to
advance toward the $50/b resistance, it translates into a further narrowing of
the heating oil crack," he said.

On the product market, NYMEX RBOB futures lost earlier momentum, trading
0.5 cents softer at $1.36/gal. BNP's Tchilinguirian pointed to accelerated
inventory turnover during the refinery maintenance season, which prepares the
market for summer-quality material.

"Allied with our weak view on crude prices, [this] would suggest that
buying interest for gasoline on a crack basis is unlikely to fade in the short
term," he said. The RBOB futures crack hovered above $10/b.

ICE gasoil and NYMEX heating oil front-month futures were up $7/mt and
0.7 cents at $388.25/mt and 1.22/gal, respectively.