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Crude-oil futures are slightly bearish this morning on thin trading, at the start of the year-end holiday season. At the end of last week, the management of the oil major Total has ordered the shut-down of all production units at the refinery in Donges as workers of the CGT union had refused to resume work despite a democratic resolution. By now, the strike has been called off, a Total spokeswomen said yesterday. The installation was restarted again but it is unclear how long this will take. Still, strikes at the 3 refineries operated by Total in La Mede, Feyzin and Gonfreville continue. The salaries need to be negotiated individually with the staff of the different refineries and so the strike will probably be settled only successively. Despite the strikes and the shut-downs, Total doesn't expect that petrol stations will run out of products. The lower production can be balanced by existing stocks and higher imports. However, imports particularly send European oil prices higher as they lead to higher prices at ICE.

ICE Gasoil contract for January delivery settled at 945.25 USD on Friday. This was 10.00 USD above Thursday's settlement. With some 49,900 deals the traded volume was slightly below average.

Oil futures in London and New York showed a steadier tendency on Friday morning. By noon, futures at ICE were predominated by the slightly bullish technical constellation as well as market fundamentals. They soon breached first short-term resistances. Gasoil and Brent were particularly fostered by bullish news regarding the strike at French refineries operated by Total. In addition to this, news on China evacuating citizens from South-Sudanese oil installations and reports on a renewed attack on a pipeline in Yemen caused some fears of supply bottlenecks. WTI only gained some ground in the afternoon buoyed by the far better than expected data on the US GDP in the third quarter. Oil futures maintained their steady tendency until late in the evening as some market players wanted to play it safe increasing their long positions ahead of the Christmas holidays. Therefore, futures at ICE and NYMEX settled near their highs, with the Brent-WTI-spread widening to more than 12 dollars.

After Friday's sharp rise the bullish impact provided by the stochastic indicator at the ICE and NYMEX charts should have been spent by now. The indicator can be considered neutral as its lines are slowly converging again. Moreover, the stochastic indicator has already entered overbought territory. Since the RSI doesn't provide any new signal either this morning, we assess the technical constellation as neutral.

U.S.

Nymex neutral: Oil futures are consolidating on a high level this morning as important cues are lacking up to now. The traded NYMEX volume is far below average for this time of day. Market players are now looking ahead to the opening of stock markets and for new cues from forex markets. They will also eye today's economic indicators. Ahead of the Christmas holidays, the traded volume is expected to remain rather thin.

Houston (ex-wharf indications 20-12)
380cst $599
180cst $667
MGO $999

New Orleans (ex-wharf indications 20-12)
380cst $619
180cst $656
MGO $1005

Singapore

WTI is up slightly with +$0.19. Singapore paper is bullish with +$6.25 for 180cst and +$5.50 for 380cst for Jan, and for Feb 180 cst +$7.50 and 380cst +$7.50 with MGO contracts Jan +$1.88 and Feb -$1.25. The cargo market is starting to react to the bullishness with 180 cst +$5.58, 380cst +$3.58 and MGO +$0.53.

380cst $615
180cst $622
MGO $940

ARA (Amsterdam - Rotterdam - Antwerp)

Still a lot of lsfo problems in ARA. No loading prospects in Antwerp. At the moment suppliers are only offering from end of this week onwards.

Indications for delivered bunkers:
380cst : $584
(1.0 %) : $630 (if available)
180cst: $620
MGO 0.1%S: $ 908