SINGAPORE, May 2 (Reuters) - U.S. crude fell for the first
time in four sessions on Monday after Saudi Arabia increased
production in April and NATO air strikes homed in on Libyan
leader Muammar Gaddafi's military.
A stronger dollar following last week's slide deterred
investors from piling up further into commodities. Federal
Reserve reassurance that economic stimulus would continue last
week helped send U.S. crude to a 31-month high above $114.
FUNDAMENTALS
* U.S. crude for June <CLc1> fell as much as 93 cents to
$113 a barrel and was down 75 cents at $113.15 at 2309 GMT,
while front-month ICE Brent crude declined 78 cents to $125.11.
* Saudi Arabia's crude oil output edged back up in April to
around 8.5 million barrels per day (bpd) from roughly 8.3
million bpd in March as demand picked up, Saudi-based industry
sources said on Sunday. []
* Libya said on Sunday that Muammar Gaddafi's youngest son
and three grandchildren were killed in a NATO air strike.
Britain said that while it was not targeting the leader, it was
homing in on the regime's military machine. []
* Libyan government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said Gaddafi was
unharmed and in good health despite what he called "a direct
operation to assassinate the leader of this country".
* The British and Italian embassies in Tripoli were attacked
after Gaddafi loyalists were shown on Libyan television vowing
vengeance following the air strike.
* A deal to remove Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh
looked doomed on Sunday after he refused to sign, raising the
threat of more instability in the Arab state. []
* Women and children in the besieged Syrian city of Deraa
chanted "God is greatest against the tyrant" from rooftops in
the night after troops backed by tanks intensified a crackdown
on the city, a resident said. []
* Money managers increased their net-long crude futures and
options positions on the New York Mercantile Exchange by 11,202
to 301,118 in the week to April 26, the Commodity Futures
Trading Commission said on Friday, just shy of an all-time high
of 311,632 reached in March. []
MARKET NEWS
* Global markets closed out a week to remember on Friday as
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke's pledge to keep cheap
money flowing through the economy pushed the Nasdaq to a 10-year
high, and gold and silver broke records.
* But the dollar strengthened by nearly 0.3 percent against
a basket of currencies on Monday, reducing the appeal of
commodities as an alternative investment.
RECENT CRUDE OIL TRADES
Asia... Europe... Americas...
CRUDE OIL MARKET NEWS
Crude oil tenders in Asia........................
Crude oil supply outages in Asia............
Refinery outages in Asia....................
Global arbitrage news and flows.................
W.African crude imports to Asia, monthly........
REFINERY MAINTENANCE DIARIES
Asia... Middle East... Europe...
NATIONAL CRUDE IMPORT DATA
Japan..............
China..............
India..............
S.Korea............
Indonesia.......
CRUDE OIL INVENTORY DATA
Japan... US... Europe...
CRUDE OIL PRODUCTION/OILFIELD NEWS
OPEC output survey... New Asian fields.
New projects......
CRUDE OIL MARKET REPORTS
Middle East........... Asia-Pacific........
West Africa......... North Sea............
Asia outlook....... Europe outlook.....
Global futures report... Technicals report......
PRICES
For all Official Selling Prices......................
For a POLL on oil prices............................
NYMEX and ICE oil futures...........................
TOCOM crude oil futures.............................<0#JCO:>
Dubai, Oman swaps and spread...............
Middle East physical crude diffs...............
Australia physical crude, Tapis swaps..........
Asia-Pacific physical crude....................
All Asian crude oil differentials................<0#C-DIF-A>
All Asian crude oil outright prices..................<0#C-A>
(Reporting by Alejandro Barbajosa)
