• Global crude futures surged forward in intra-day trading Monday, as bullish sentiment fed off concerns over the status of elections in Nigeria, ever-present tensions over Iran's nuclear program and tightness in the US gasoline market.

• Markets awaited the outcome of historic elections in Nigeria, trying to gauge levels of stability following the first peaceful civilian-to-civilian handover since independence in 1960. Nigeria is an OPEC member and the world's sixth largest oil exporter.

• Iran Sunday rejected Western calls for a suspension of its sensitive nuclear activities just days ahead of crucial talks on its atomic drive with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. "Halting uranium enrichment is definitely deleted from the literature of Iran's nuclear activities," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters. "In our negotiations the halting of this activity has not been on the table and going back...is not envisaged."

Updated: April 23, 2007