London (Platts)--19May2009

Global crude futures continued to rally in European morning trading
Tuesday, extending Monday's late rally which saw both NYMEX and ICE Brent
crude futures gain around $3/barrel in intra-day trading on the back of a
mixture of bullish news and equities markets, sources said Tuesday.

"The main catalysts behind Monday's advance was a surging US equity
market, as well as growing unease about the unrest in Nigeria, which seems to
be transitioning from a low-level guerrilla campaign to one approaching
all-out war," energy analyst Edward Meir said in a MF Global report.

"Another constructive factor... was a fire and explosion that sidelined a
portion of Sunoco's oil refinery in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania."

At 0929 GMT, the front-month July ICE Brent contract was trading 71 cents
higher at $59.18/barrel, after coming close to breaking the $60/b mark earlier
in the session, hitting a new year-to-date high of $59.65/b.

Similarly, the June NYMEX crude contract, due to expire at the end of
trading on Tuesday, was up by 83 cents to $59.86/b, having earlier touched a
fresh 2009 high of $60.48/b.

"It looks like a test of the $60/b mark for ICE Brent is finally possible
today. The market seems to be defying physical logic, although there are some
refinery problems in the US and concern about Nigerian supply," one
London-based broker said.

"We are still very heavily influenced by financial markets," he added.
Monday's rally was fueled by strong gains of more than 200 points in the
Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the positive sentiment continued in Asian
and European financial markets on Tuesday. A slightly weaker US dollar also
contributed to the rally in petroleum futures.

News that Sunoco had cut production at its 175,000 b/d Marcus Hook,
Pennsylvania, refinery due to a fire Sunday in particular boosted NYMEX RBOB.
The front-month RBOB contract hit a seven-month high at $1.7938/gal
Tuesday, before retreating to $1.7820/gal by 0929 GMT, a gain of 2.39 cents
from Monday's close.

Looking ahead to the next set of weekly US petroleum stock data, released
later Tuesday by the American Petroleum Institute and on Wednesday by the
Energy Information Administration, analysts surveyed by Platts were expecting
a 1.5 million barrel draw in crude stocks, a 1.7 million barrel drop in
gasoline and a 1.3 million barrel build in distillates.

In the wake of the rally in gasoline and crude, distillates futures also
increased, with the June ICE gasoil contract up $12.75 at $479/mt, while June
NYMEX heating oil gained 2.13 cents to $1.4970/gal. The RBOB/heating oil
spread reached its highest level since June 2007 at more than 28 cents/gal.
--Verena Peternell, verena_peternell@platts.com