IPE Brent edges up as Hurricane Wilma upgraded to category five

London (Platts)--19Oct2005

Front-month December Brent futures on London's International Petroleum
Exchange recovered from early session losses as Hurricane Wilma was upgraded
to a category five hurricane and the market looks to US stock data out later
Wednesday. 

     The front-month December IPE Brent futures contract was trading at
$59.45/bbl at 1048 London time, up 16 cts from Tuesday's settle of $59.28/bbl.
     "Overall nothing massive is taking place at the moment, the market looks
rather quiet," a trader said. Many major oil companies and investment banks
have been largely confined to the sidelines in recent days due to the
volatility, traders said.

     "Everyone is trading like a local, no-one is willing to take on big
speculative positions," one broker from Mann Financial said. 
     The National Hurricane Center said that Wilma, recently upgrade to a
category 5 hurricane, would likely avoid the oil infrastructure in the US Gulf
coast and swing north towards Florida. 

     Elsewhere, analysts polled by Platts projected that US oil inventory data
due out Wednesday from the Department of Energy and American Petroleum
Institute would show a 2.5-mil bbl rise in commercial crude inventories.

     Analysts were also projecting a draw of 1.1-mil bbl in gasoline stocks
and 2.1-mil bbl in distillate stocks. Prices fell Tuesday, partly on the
easing fears about hurricane Wilma and on the restart of ExxonMobil's 348,500
b/d Beaumont refinery, leaving about 1.2-mil b/d of refining capacity still
idled by the two hurricanes.

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