•Global crude prices moved higher on Friday, with ICE Brent hitting a new 2007 high above $69/barrel and WTI futures also recovering, brokers said, supported by falling oil stocks and profit-taking by traders on the unusually wide spread between Brent and WTI.

•At 1130 London time, the May ICE Brent futures contract, due to expire by the end of European trading Friday, was up 43 cents/barrel at $69.15/b, having hit an intra-day high earlier in the day of $69.59/b, the highest level seen since last September. May WTI on both NYMEX and ICE was up 47 cents at $64.43/b, reducing Brent's premium over WTI to $4.72/b. May NYMEX WTI saw a late rally Thursday, climbing by more than $2/b in intra-day trading.

•Further price support came from the International Energy Agency's monthly report on Thursday, which said OECD stocks were likely to have seen their biggest first quarter draw for ten years. Despite ample crude stocks at Cushing in the US, bullish market sentiment is being supported by unplanned outages at US refineries, which have fuelled fears about product supply shortages in the peak summer season.

Updated: April 13, 2007