Kevin Norrish Prices Quotations

News that four foreign oil workers held hostage by Nigerian militants have been released (was) helping prices to ease back a bit.

Whilst the immediate impact on European energy prices has been negligible, the dispute has served to emphasize the dependence of Western Europe on Russian gas supplies and the issue has the potential to keep European gas consumers on edge for some time.

We would expect the potential for further chaos in Nigeria to provide a floor for prices above $60, and we expect that Nigeria will continue to be a major issue in terms of supply security.

This supports our view that crude prices will soften as we move through the summer months.

With plenty of crude oil available to the market at present and some OPEC members signaling that lower oil prices may be acceptable to the group, the stage may well be set for further tests of support over the coming weeks.

Oil prices have fallen since the release of worse than expected US oil inventory figures on Wednesday but the potential for the Iranian situation to worsen during the course of the IAEA meeting currently underway is keeping oil market participants wary.

It's because we've had such an explosive rise in heating oil prices -- I don't think we've ever seen such a dramatic increase in the spread between heating oil and crude.

India and China are big importers of crude oil, and they're both at the stage of their development where they're energy intensive, ... We have seen no pullback in demand in those countries, or in western countries --demand doesn't seem to be an issue that would help keep prices in check.

Iran matters more than is currently priced in and Iran's external relations remain the key wild card. We continue to see the situation as representing the major upside risk for oil prices this year.