London (Platts)--15May2009

The June NYMEX light sweet crude contract opened lower in the US trading
session Friday, as a stronger dollar and weaker equity markets continued to
impact sentiment in the oil market, sources said.

WTI opened the day at $57.94/barrel, a 68 cent fall from the overnight
settle and continued to weaken, reaching $57.56/b at 13:14 GMT. The new front
month July ICE Brent contract was also weaker, trading at $57.39/b, a $1.20
fall.

"The downward momentum we've seen this morning seems to be dollar-related
and the fact that the recent global equity rally appears to be running out of
steam," one London-based crude broker said.

However, energy analyst Oliver Jakob played down the role of equities in
directing the crude market.

"While we agree to the recent strong correlation between oil and the Dow
[Jones Industrial Average index], we will not fully brush aside the
fundamentals since some recent developments deserve receiving a closer look,"
Olivier Jakob at Petromatrix said in his daily note.

This view was shared by another crude broker, citing poor oil
fundamentals as a crucial factor in the direction of the market.

"The WTI benchmark is range trading--with little attempt of breaking to
the upside. Fundamentally, the crude market as a whole remains unchanged--high
stocks coupled with poor demand," the broker said citing $60/b as the
technical resistance level for NYMEX WTI.

In the product markets, NYMEX RBOB June futures were at $1.7022/gal a 2
cent fall, having traded as high as $1.73/gal this week, the highest level
since October 21, 2008. The NYMEX heating oil contract also traded lower at
$1.4850/gal, a 3 cent fall.

In the currency markets the ICE dollar index rebounded from an earlier
low of 82.3 points, trading at 82.680, a 0.283 rise.
--George Johnson, george_johnson@platts.com